President Museveni’s NRM party candidate Uthuman Mugisha Mubaraka has been declared the winner of the Hoima District LC5 by-election.

Mugisha was declared the winner by the electoral agency after garnering 18,353 votes. His main competitor Vincent Muhumuza, an independent candidate had 12,020 votes.

Bobi Wine’s candidate of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party was number three with 3,972 votes.

At the same time, Patrick Musinguzi of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) got 271 votes while an independent candidate Lenox Mugume received 179 votes.

The total number of votes cast during the by-election was 34,795, out of which 724 votes were declared invalid. The total number of spoiled votes was 56.

The by-election was held after the death of Kadiri Kirungi who was the Hoima District LC5 chairman since 2016.

Interestingly, the winner of the Hoima by-election Mugisha Mubaraka is the son of the late Kadiri Kirungi who perished in a road accident on March 17.

After he was declared the winner, Mugisha told the Hoima people that he would continue implementing projects that were started by his late father.

“I want to work for the people of Hoima. I will reach out to the relevant ministries to ensure land titles are issued, and those in need of compensation receive their due,” he said.

According to the electoral commission, the Hoima by-election was the fairest and transparent election, despite minor challenges that were experienced.

“This has been one of the best elections we had. In other elections, we always received several calls and complaints but this time there were very minor issues,” said Justice Byabakama, a commissioner of Uganda’s electoral commission.

Byabakama made the remarks at the Dwoli primary school tallying center, where official results were announced by district returning officer  Merab Kasande.

NRM director of mobilization Rosemary Sseninde associated the win with the involvement of the youth actively in the campaign exercise.