Masaka Election: Nameere Refuses to Receive Election Petition Notice

16 March 2026

Masaka, Uganda — The legal dispute over the Masaka City Woman Member of Parliament seat has intensified after opposition candidate Rose Nalubowa accused Justine Nameere of refusing to receive formal notice of an election petition challenging the outcome of the controversial vote recount that declared Nameere the winner.

Nalubowa said her lawyers filed an election petition against Nameere on March 6 but that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate declined to receive the notice when it was served.

lic newspapers,” Nalubowa said, indicating that the notice of petition was subsequently published in national newspapers including the Weekend New Vision (March 14–15 edition) and the Daily Monitor.

“As required by law, we noticed her through pub

The petition stems from the disputed Masaka City Woman MP election held on January 15, 2026, in which Nalubowa of the National Unity Platform (NUP) was initially declared the winner with 25,443 votes, defeating Nameere who had polled 20,324 votes.

However, a court-ordered recount supervised by Masaka Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe later overturned the original result and declared Nameere the winner with 25,502 votes, while Nalubowa’s tally dropped to 23,176 votes.

The recount itself was marked by several irregularities, including the discovery of one ballot box without a security seal, which was excluded from the exercise, and another polling station — Kimwanyi P7 — whose results were disregarded after the ballot box contained 97 votes for Nameere alone.

Nalubowa’s petition now shifts the dispute to the High Court, where judges will review the legality of the recount process and determine whether the result declared by the Chief Magistrate should stand.

Under Uganda’s electoral laws, if a candidate refuses to receive service of court documents, the law allows petitioners to serve notice through public advertisement, a step Nalubowa says her lawyers have already taken.