The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party emerged victorious in the concluded presidential and parliamentary elections in Maracha District with President Yoweri Museveni garnering 76.4 percent of the votes and all the party parliamentary flag bearers declared winners in Maracha District.

In the presidential elections results, Frank Bulira of the Revolutionary People’s Party attained 518 votes, Robert Kasibante of the National Peasant Party 624 votes, Robert Kyagulanyi of the National Unity Platform (NUP) gathered 6, 876 votes, Elton Mabirizi 332 votes, Mugisha Muntu Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) obtained 361 votes, Mubarak Munyagwa 428 votes, Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) 1,208 votes, Yoweri Museveni  the flag bearer for NRM party achieved 46, 608 votes. The invalid votes were 3, 293.

Getting to the parliamentary races, for Maracha Constituency Emmanuel Agadribo National Unity Platform 363 votes, Moses Obeta an independent candidate  9,247 votes, whereas Sam Aguta an independent gained 686 votes,  Denis Oguzu the incumbent also the FDC flag bearer 3,290 votes, Nelson Uhuru NRM flag bearer  was declared the winner of the race with 13, 696 votes

 Meanwhile, Maracha East constituency, Emmanuel Abiti of the Democratic Party received 210 votes, James Acidri independent candidate 5,525 votes, Sunday Asau independent candidate 279 votes, Justus Aduma independent candidate 10,032 votes, Morris Avaga of NUP 327 votes, Collins Mawa independent candidate got 242 votes, John Mawa FDC 1,167 votes, Tom Alit on the NRM ticket emerged victorious after getting 12, 606 votes.

 In the woman MP’s race, Jolly Avako an independent candidate fetched 4,553 votes, Vivian Angucia NUP obtained 3,834 votes, Lillian Masai of FDC 2,849 votes, and Jennifer Driwaru the NRM ticket holder and the incumbent had a landslide win of 46, 171 votes.

Maracha Assistant Resident District Commissioner Mr. Collins Dramani in a statement commended the people of Maracha District for maintaining peace during the first phase of the elections and exercising their rights.

“The peaceful conduct of these elections is a strong message that Maracha District rejects violence, intimidation, and division. It affirms our collective commitment to stability, national unity and the democratic leadership of our country,” he said.

He commended the losing candidates for having availed themselves to participate in the elections but challenged the winning candidates to consolidate the trust they have earned.  

“I congratulate those who have been entrusted victory. To those who did not succeed this time, your courage to contest and your acceptance of the democratic process has strengthened multiparty democracy and political accountability in Maracha,” he added.

Mr. Paul Anguyo, a seasoned journalist based in Maracha District observed that unlike in the previous election campaigns, this time round the voters scrutinized the manifestos of the new parliamentary candidates in addition to earnestly assessing the track record of the incumbents.

 “Some of these voters were interested in these people’s manifestos they sold. For the incumbents they valued and compared their activities vice versa your manifesto whether the manifesto you had previously worked,” he stated.

Anguyo said the dominance of the NRM in the parliamentary races was due to the benefits associated with working with a ruling party.

“When I interacted with a good number of voters especially NRM ,  they said NRM is the one managing the country, at times decisions of this country are taken in the NRM caucus meetings , in an event where most of your MPs are opposition, they will not have access to such kind of caucus meetings,” said Anguyo.

Polling delayed in most polling stations due to the non-functionality of the Biometric Voter Verification Kit (BVVK) but later that was sorted with the process shifting to manual verification.  

The Office of National Chairman (ONC) coordinator for Maracha District, Hon. Dicky Alema said President Museveni won massively in Maracha District and West Nile as whole, 473,556 votes against his closest rival Kyagulanyi who obtained 90,231 votes, due to his exemplary leadership and proven outcomes in manifesto implementation. 

“Under Mzee (President Museveni)  the last five years manifesto which was under the slogan of ‘securing the future’ was really implemented to 85 percent that made the Ugandans to have trust in his leadership and trust in the entire party of NRM,”  he remarked

According to Alema, in reward for the region’s support, government should invest heavily in road infrastructure of local government, skilling the unemployed youth, and also have more West Nile leaders appointed to cabinet.

“West Nile has generally support President Museveni massively it was not only Maracha. We now expectant in return service delivery one key issue is the national cake we not expect this to come to our sub-region. We now expect him to appoint some of our sons and daughters in this region as ministers. We want West Nile to be in that house where resources are allocated,” he said.

He is hopeful that the West Nile MPs will galvanize their voices to lobby for the development agenda for the region stating that the challenges of West Nile districts are similar.

 “We expect our members of parliament to be vibrant on the floor of parliament to advocate for our resources in this region. Uganda has a lot of money, how this money will come to your region or district depends on the capacity of the members of parliament you sent,” he said.

Police maintained high patrol in areas that were considered to be high risky with police at one moment firing bullets in the air to scare off youths who wanted to engage in hooliganism in Maracha Town Council.

West Nile Police Spokesperson SSP Josephine Angucia said the elections passed off peacefully despite some incidents of violence reported before and on polling day.

She appealed for the citizenry to remain calm in the forthcoming elections and take part heavily since the leaders who will be elected will be grassroot leaders who are close to them.

“We shall continue to secure everyone as elections get concluded, then strategically we shall deploy our officers to avert incidences of violence. Above all, I urge everyone to abide by the law of the country and the electoral guidelines in the remaining elections,” she said during an appearance on a local radio station.

President Museveni won with huge margins in all the West Nile districts.