The National Resistance Movement Party in Entebbe has split up after it emerged that Patience Mubangizi one of the aspiring NRM flag bearer for the position of Member of Parliament is believed to have masterminded a plot to rig the party primaries slated to take place this month. According to sources in the NRM Party Mubangizi is believed to participated in an illegal registration exercise of members ahead of the party primaries.
According to a petition that was filed to the Secretary General Kasule Lumumba and copied to the party chairman Museveni by Majority NRM Party members in Entebbe, it reads:
“Unauthorized members of NRM in Entebbe were found physically with NRM Registration yellow cards and serial numbers at Kiwafu East registering members in unauthorized areas such as Merryland High School, Entebbe Airforce S.S and Patience Mubangizi’s office located at Entebbe Social Centre”
In a statement written by Pius Mugagga an NRM Registrar (Subward) who was registering party members in Kiwafu East Division B revealed that on May 18 2015 Mubangizi and Sherry Kalyebaala came to the Kiwafu East registration Point with a list of 20 codes and 7 cards wanting him to use them in the registration which he refused and were given to the Kiwafu East Party Chairman Bernard Kityo who later handed them over to Mr. Matovu Edirisa (Figo) for further investigation.
Some of the confiscated serial numbers include;
115097281, 115097282, 115097283, 115097284, 115097285, 115097286, 115097287, 115097288, 115097289, 115097290, 115097291, 115097292, 115097293, 115097294, 115097295, 115097296, 115097297, 115097298, 115097300.
Some of the anomalies in the registration exercise from the petition are indicated below in the Table. The petitioners have implicated Mubangizi who is suspected to have connived with other party officials at the NRM Secretariat to deliberately mess up the register so as to enable her smooth rigging in the party primaries slated to take place this month.
However Sherry Kalyebaala has since crossed to Fabrice Rulinda’s camp and denied the allegations that she conspired with Mubangizi to slot in fake NRM Cards during the registration exercise. In a crisis meeting that was held at the Entebbe Cinema Hall on Thursday and chaired by Rogers Mulindwa and Mike Sebalu who represented Secretary General Kasule Lumumba revealed that the party had resolved to use the original handwritten yellow book registers during the primaries instead of the newly updated party registers that have several anomalies.
| Subward | Members Registered in Yellow Book. | Voter Update register returned | Missing Voter names | New Registered Members. |
| Bononko Misoli | 428 | 413 | 15 | 25 |
| Old Entebbe | 169 | 9 | 160 | 47 |
| Mayanzi | 576 | 554 | 86 | 100 |
| Kigungu Central | 612 | 188 | 425 | 100 |
| Kiwafu East | 465 | 565 | 16 | 100 |
| Kitooro Central | 952 | 142 | 810 | 100 |
| Kiwafu West | 951 | 500 | 451 | 100 |
| Kiwafu Central | 625 | 708 | 83 | 108 |
| Lugonjo Nakiwogo | 2475 | 2162 | 393 | 100 |
Total: 7253
The petition also states that the anomalies were conducted with intent to serve individual ambitions for persons like Patience Mubangizi who is sponsored by Hon. John Patrick Amama Mbabazi’s faction to tear up the NRM Party.
It continues:
The missing and multiple entries were deliberately done to give room to enter names in the illegal parallel registers in possession by aspiring candidate Patience Mubangizi.
However Mubangizi revealed that all the accusations labeled against her are mere allegations from her opponents who are scared and panicking and giving all sorts of excuses to get sympathy.
“My opponents are just spoiling my name claiming that I tampered with the registers. The secretariat even discovered that the entire registration process across the country was marred by several anomalies” Mubangizi stated.
She added: The names of some of my campaign agents didn’t return so I couldn’t have had a hand in manipulating the registers. On the accusations of registering members at Merryland High School, Mubangizi said that she was only carrying out a sensitization drive to remind members to register. Mubangizi insists she is already a flag bearer for the NRM Party.
The lead petitioners Sempala Twaha aspiring LCIII Chairman Division B, Fabrice Rulinda aspiring Member of Parliament and Lwanga Joseph Lukyamuzi aspiring LCV Councilor are yet to announce the next course of action. The trio is leading a faction of NRM Members who want Mubangizi to be disqualified from the race. The trio insists that they want to avoid a repeat of the 2010 primaries where Mubangizi rigged her way to victory though former Rwampara MP Hon. Amon Muzoora Reeves had trounced her.
