KOLOLO. Businessman and Kampala Central Division Mayor Salim Uhuru exhibited his firm political muscle and uprooted Mr Marwaha Singh Katongole as ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) Kampala region vice-chairperson .
The seat was part of the hotly contested slots of the ruling NRM’s central executive committee (CEC) during the internal party elections at Kololo Independence Grounds on Wednesday night . CEC is the top decision-making body of NRM .
According to the results declared by NRM electoral commission chairperson,Tanga Odoi, Mr Katongole lost his seat to Uhuru, who garnered 2,411 votes (63.20 percent ). Katongole, on the other hand, polled 1,375 votes. The duo was in the race with Collins Andrew Bukenya, who collected a paltry 29 votes of the 3,815 total votes cast. Despite the results going unchallenged , the exercise was arred by bribery allegations as reports emerged that some candidates were dishing out cash ranging between shillings 300,000 and one million or more.
“People have money in sacks, and they are giving it out. I have never seen money in sacks, but I have seen it this time,” Uhuru told journalists.
“So, for me with my small business, I cannot match those big tycoons who are running with such kind of money,” he added.
Bribery allegations, among others, saw the election of the chairperson of the party’s entrepreneurs’ league suspended on Monday until further notice.
There were unconfirmed reports that entrepreneurs’ league delegates were being offered sh8m each, with some of them complaining. This is said to have forced former Tororo municipality MP Sanjay Tanna to pull out of the race.
Before the elections started yesterday, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, an incumbent CEC member who has since lost to Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, also said she was disturbed by the commercialisation of politics.
“The kind of expenditure is unprecedented. If we are not careful, time will come when those who have money are the ones who get elected, not because they are good quality leaders, but because they have paid the voters. So, it is something we have to worry about. I hope we can find a way of curbing it,” Kadaga, 69, observed.