The Treasurer of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Counsel Benjamin Katana, has accused Uganda’s electoral and judicial systems of deliberately disadvantaging political actors opposed to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), pointing to the controversial Masaka City Woman Member of Parliament election as a glaring example.
Speaking during NBS Frontline on Thursday, Katana said the events in Masaka reflect a broader pattern nationwide, where voters elect a candidate only for the final outcome to be overturned through legal and procedural processes that undermine the will of the people.
“The events in Masaka are part of the wider context where people vote for one person but another person is declared winner. This is not just a problem of NUP. It is a problem of the whole of Uganda,” Katana said.
The controversy began when the Electoral Commission (EC) on January 16, 2026, officially declared NUP’s Nalubowa the winner with 25,443 votes, ahead of NRM’s Justine Nameere, who polled 20,334 votes.
Other candidates included Juliet Kakande of the Democratic Front with 6,343 votes, and independent Sauya Nanyonga with 6,196 votes.
Nameere petitioned the Masaka Chief Magistrate’s Court, claiming irregularities in tallying, including the exclusion of results from 11 of 314 polling stations.
On January 30, 2026, Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe ordered a full recount, which, concluded over the weekend on February 1, dramatically reversed the result: Nameere was declared the winner with 25,502 votes, while Nalubowa’s tally dropped to 23,176.
Kakande’s votes fell to 6,136 and Nanyonga’s to 5,921.
The ruling triggered widespread criticism from legal and political observers, who argue the recount violated key provisions of the Parliamentary Elections Act, 2005, and long-standing judicial precedent.
Sections 52, 55, and 112 of the Act govern the timing of recount applications, the handling of ballot boxes, and prohibit courts from hearing parliamentary election disputes on weekends or public holidays.
Court proceedings revealed serious anomalies, including a broken seal on one ballot box, six allegedly empty ballot boxes, and two boxes containing votes exclusively for the NRM candidate.
Despite these issues, the court set aside the affected boxes while allowing the rest to be counted—an approach critics say contradicts at least six High Court decisions prohibiting recounts where ballot integrity is compromised.
In defending the ruling, Magistrate Asiimwe said: “I cannot deny the people of Masaka justice because of old laws and earlier court decisions.”
Katana strongly rejected this position, asserting that the Masaka case illustrates how state institutions are increasingly weaponised against opposition forces.
“There was a clear scheme to disadvantage NUP, but also other opposition political parties. Our candidates have been treated unfairly across the country,” he said, citing Bukedea, where an NUP candidate was dismissed under controversial circumstances, as further evidence of a nationwide pattern.
Katana warned that the system appears deliberately designed to maintain NRM dominance.
“I think the system has been built aiming at injustice—specifically to disadvantage those who are against the NRM,” he said.
Addressing growing public disillusionment with Uganda’s electoral process, Katana acknowledged long-standing concerns raised by opposition figures such as former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye, who has repeatedly claimed elections are increasingly meaningless. However, he cautioned against withdrawing from the process altogether.
“In as much as many Ugandans say elections are becoming meaningless, unless you are planning on going to the bush or have prepared something else, I don’t think the solution is withdrawing. When you withdraw, you enable the very people who make these elections meaningless to achieve their objective,” Katana said.
The Masaka controversy has unfolded amid tightly contested races nationwide during the January 15, 2026 elections, which have generated a surge in election petitions and intensified criticism of the Electoral Commission.
The case has become a national flashpoint, raising urgent questions about electoral justice, judicial independence, and the future of democratic participation in Uganda.