On Thursday, July 17, 2025 the National Resistance Movement (NRM) exercised the NRM party primaries across the whole country and I am personally very happy that the candidates I supported that is to say Hon. Wilson Kajwengye and Hon. Ruth Rujoki Mushabe in Kiruhura District won the primaries and emerged as their party’s flagbearers. The incumbent District Member of Parliament Hon. Jovanice Rwenduru, who lost to Hon Ruth Rujoki; and Mr. Jotham Taremwa, who lost to the incumbent Nyabushozi Constituency Member of Parliament Hon. Wilson Kajwengye; have filed petitions to the NRM Tribunal claiming that the entire process was not free and fair.
In other districts, some other aggrieved candidates, who lost in the primaries have filed petitions at the NRM Electoral Commission office because they are contesting the results for various reasons: voter bribery, voter intimidation, electoral violence, altering results, tampering with the registers, goon-hiring, and in some instances the registrar announced two candidates as winners, for example, in Hoima District. Other grievances include constituencies where poll results were inconclusive or annulled, among others. The NRM Tribunal’s response to these petitions will be crucial.
These petitions are being received by the Chairperson of the NRM Electoral Tribunal, Mr. John Musiime, who was appointed by President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday, July 21, 2025. The tribunal, which has registered 381 petitions so far, will start the hearing on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 and the NRM Tribunal will decide petitions in 35 days.
A contact from the NRM Secretariat informed me that the 29-member tribunal, which is tasked to resolve all party primary disputes and complaints by different candidates across the country, is full of lawyers who will be non-partisan. However, an aggrieved candidate is free to be accompanied by their own lawyer if he or she wishes to do; nevertheless, if the candidate was on ground and saw what was taking place during the primaries they themselves can testify without their own lawyer present.
This being the first time that the NRM party has constituted a tribunal, this surge of petitions shows the candidates’ confidence in the judicial process, especially since the aggrieved candidates will have the opportunity to a fair hearing, which was not the case during the highly charged emotional primaries. I commend those who have filed their petitions, because it is a more civilized way to resolve issues rather than resorting to electoral violence.
President Museveni’s letter, posted on his X account on July 20, 2025 stated, ‘We are going to prosecute these mistake makers, the easiest to start with are those who altered results.’ The tribunal will help the NRM party to maintain its credibility. As a mass party (NRM has over 300 MPs in the 11th Parliament) it is natural that grievances will arise. Some other MPs, who have lost and already publically declared that they would come back as independents have been advised that they should at least first take their grievances to the tribunal, for example, Emmanuel Ddombo, the Director of Information, Publicity and Spokesperson NRM Party on NTV on Sunday said, “We have an electoral tribunal, why would someone think of coming as an independent even before coming to the tribunal to contest the elections? Let’s do first things first!”
Proverbs 21:15 says, ‘When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.’ I hope that the NRM tribunal will deliver rulings to the satisfaction of the aggrieved candidates, because some candidates have already publically stated in the media that they are ready to go independent (going against the party position) if they feel justice is not served!
However, in the spirit of unity and progress, and for the sake of party cohesion, I urge all the candidates who lost in the NRM party primaries, who have submitted petitions, to respect the judgment of the NRM Electoral Tribunal and not go rogue by standing as an independent candidate, as this will be seen as an act of insubordination.
Let the law take its course!
The writer is a Third Year Public Relations Student at Makerere University