By David Balilete
Africa-Press – Uganda. On July, 17, 2025, the ruling party in Uganda, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) conducted its much-anticipated party primaries to select flagbearers across the country. Surprisingly in some constituencies the voters lining up behind candidates or their portraits were even as young as 6 to 9 years old!
One of the reasons the voters voted for some incumbents was that they keep in constant touch with them, even after being elected MPs in the 11th Parliament; incumbents that understand their basic concerns and who identify with them in their broad societal struggles, such as lack of water and education.
A case in point is victor-incumbent Gerald Nangoli, MP Elgon North, who explained his victory in a news interview on June,21, 2025, “You may not be doing your role as a Member of Parliament, but show your love to your people, and this is what has attributed to my rate of 85%, because I am with my people.”
In addition, in Kamuli District, incumbent Ms. Rebecca Kadaga defeated her rivals, polling 104,771 votes. Even when she has notably had a long spanning political career, Kadaga obviously remains a favourite among her voters and this can be attributed to her commitment to tackle social challenges like education and domestic violence; for instance, she established the Kamuli Girls Education Trust Fund, which has played a key role in supporting education in Kamuli, as a form of empowerment. In a UBC news interview on 8th March, 2025 Kadaga said she has educated over ten thousand children!
While some of the incumbents that lost during the NRM Primaries blame the NRM Electoral Commission (EC) for their defeat in their petitions to the NRM Elections Disputes Tribunal, with allegations like: alteration of results, bribery, tampering with registers, conduct of registrars and interference of candidates, among others, the party EC chairperson, Tanga Odoi, on 22nd July, 2025, dissented saying, “The voters voted you for the five years; and I warned you, if you sleep in Parliament and not go back to them; they’re waiting for you! Now they have waited for them; and some of them have been thrown out.”
The large number of fresh faces delivered from these NRM primaries can only further prove how free and fair the elections were because how else would an incumbent office holder, who hardly reaches his electorate’s expectations be unseated? The wave of politics in Uganda has gradually changed over time and every new day people expect better from the people they entrust to lead them; they want change when their expectations are not met halfway! A new leader brings fresh ideas, a different touch to service delivery and knows better than to neglect issues that led to the unseating of their predecessor.
Another reason why incumbents were ejected from office, is because the new political aspirants, who were seeking to unseat them had all the time to interact with the constituents while the incumbents were tied up in their Kampala offices, hence they lost touch with the electorate.
This shows how important personal touch is for a sitting MP, to interact with his or her voters face to face, because this gives them an opportunity to air out their grievances directly to their MP.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that among the countless victories for new candidates, is one in Kiboga West Constituency, where a 28 year-old former teacher, Eria Erick Lule who trounced his opponent, the incumbent Abdul Ssetumba Mutumba with 6,738 votes against his (Mutumba’s) of 6,628 votes in the NRM primaries.
Finally, staying in touch with the people that elect leaders into office should be as important to them as much as their political tenure is.
The writer is a Journalism and Mass Communication student at St. Lawrence University
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
