National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearer Justine Nameere has been declared the duly elected Woman Member of Parliament for Masaka District after a court-supervised vote recount overturned the earlier outcome of the race.
The recount, which began on Friday, January 30, followed a successful court application by Nameere challenging the victory that had initially been announced in favour of National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Rose Nalubowa. After the exercise, Nameere emerged with 25,502 votes against Nalubowa’s 23,176.
The declaration ends weeks of uncertainty and tension surrounding the highly competitive contest, which had sparked legal battles and political debate in the district.
Masaka Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe oversaw the recount after the court found sufficient grounds to re-examine the results, following claims of serious irregularities in the tallying and handling of votes during the initial count.
As early as February 1, the recount process exposed major inconsistencies between figures recorded on declaration of results forms and Electoral Commission tally sheets, and the actual ballot papers found inside several ballot boxes. In multiple polling stations, the number of ballots retrieved did not match the official records.
At Kimwanyi P.7 polling station, official documents showed Nameere with 97 votes and Nalubowa with 62. However, only 49 ballot papers were found in the box, all in favour of Nameere. Due to the discrepancy, the court excluded the entire polling station from the final count. Similar issues were detected in at least five other stations.
At Binyonyi A (NAMBU-Z) polling station, Nameere had been credited with 339 votes on the tally sheet, yet only 41 ballot papers bearing her name were recovered. A comparable situation occurred at Market Triangle (Open Space), where her recorded 200 votes were reduced to just 21 ballots found in the box.
In other cases, the recount showed that Nameere’s votes had been significantly under-recorded. For instance, at Block B A polling station, the tally sheet indicated she had received 39 votes, but the ballot box contained 188 votes in her favour.
Nalubowa later pulled out of the recount exercise in protest, arguing that the court should not proceed after a ballot box with a broken seal was discovered. By the time she withdrew, the court had examined 104 ballot boxes—about 33.2 per cent of the total.
In total, 59,499 ballot papers were scheduled to be scrutinised in the Masaka City Woman MP race, a process that ultimately reshaped the final outcome in Nameere’s favour.
