EC Begins Hearing Parliamentary Nomination Petitions

The Electoral Commission (EC) has commenced hearings petitions arising from the recent nomination exercise for the January 2026 General Elections.

The Electoral body conducted the countrywide nomination of parliamentary candidates on Wednesday, 22nd, and Thursday, 23rd October 2025.

EC Chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama, revealed that the Commission had so far received more than 50 parliamentary nomination petitions, with 20 of them already scheduled for hearing on the same day.

“The petitioners and the people being petitioned against are already here, and we are going to start hearing those petitions because time is not on our side,” Justice Byabakama stated.

He explained that the Commission must resolve the disputes promptly to proceed with the printing of ballot papers, a critical stage in the election preparation process.

“We have to start printing ballot papers, but we cannot start printing before determining who is going to appear on the ballot paper or who is not going to be there,” he emphasized.

The final ballot paper specimen is expected to come out in two weeks’ time, and by then, all petition hearings should be concluded and decided.

Before the parliamentary nomination petition hearing stage, the Commission had been handling over 200 Local Government petitions, which have now been concluded.

The ongoing parliamentary petition hearings are part of the Commission’s efforts to ensure that all candidates appearing on the 2026 ballot are duly verified and legally cleared. The hearings are being conducted at the EC offices in Industrial Area, Kampala, with both petitioners and respondents in attendance.

The Electoral Commission has reiterated its commitment to conducting a free, fair, and transparent electoral process, assuring the public that all disputes will be handled within the legal framework and in accordance with the Commission’s established timelines.

One of the petitioners, Ntamu Alex Kalinzi, says his competitor was wrongfully nominated as the National Unity Platform (NUP) flag bearer for Bukoto central constituency, in Masaka district.

“I am here to follow up on how far my party the National Unity Platform, has gone with the Electoral Commission as far as the mess that was done by nominating Jamil Kivumbi on a NUP card, yet he was not the endorsed flagbearer,” said Kalinzi.

According to Kalinzi, he booked his nomination for 10:00 am on 22nd October 2025, and the verification of his academic papers and other nomination documents had been done prior.

“I was surprised, reaching there around 9:30 am, they had already nominated Jamil Kivumbi a bit earlier, yet they were aware that I was the endorsed flagbearer,” he added.

For Oguti Andrew Stephen, a voter in Oyam town council, he petitioned the Electoral Commission on the name variations by Ayena Odongo Krispus Charles, the nominated candidate for Oyam County North parliamentary seat.

“It has been observed that the said candidate has been using different names, including Krispus Ayena Odongo, Krispus Ayena, and other variations, in his nomination papers, campaign materials, and public appearances. To my knowledge, he has not produced any deed poll or gazette notice to confirm a lawful change of name,” reads Oguti’s complaint dated 24th October 2025.

Oguti seeks an investigation into the matter to establish whether Ayena has complied with the requirements of the law regarding the use of consistent and verifiable names during the nomination process.

On the other hand, Higenyi Moses Kemba, an aspiring Member of Parliament for Bunyole East Constituency, in Butalejja district, petitioned the Electoral Commission after he failed to be nominated on the scheduled date.

“I am qualified for the office of MP, I paid my money, filled my papers, I appeared, presented my everything having arrived at the Commission at 4:00 pm on 23rd October 2025,” he said. “The returning officer, who was told that I was coming for nomination, conveniently left office, and he was not there. He waited for 5:03 pm, that is when he entered the hall, and he said that it was time up!”

According to Higenyi, the official flag bearer of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), he was not nominated based on time, which was not correct.

He appeals to the Electoral Commission to be fair and nominate him to context in the upcoming election.

The parliamentary elections are scheduled for January 2026, and the preliminary report from the electoral body shows that a total of 2,711 candidates were successfully nominated across the country for Over 500 parliamentary seats. These include 353 seats for directly elected MPs, 146 for District Woman representatives, 20 Special Interest Groups (Youth, Older Persons, Workers, and People Living with Disabilities – PWDs), and 10 representatives from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

The nominated candidates for the upcoming election are slightly fewer than the 2,801 parliamentary candidates nominated in the 2021 general election, but higher than the 1,743 nominated in the 2016 election.

All Opposition political parties combined have fielded a total of 914 parliamentary candidates, compared to the 514 from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

The nominated candidates are set to start campaigns on 10th November, 2025.