NUP Faces Four Candidates in Contest to Retain Kalangala Woman MP Seat

Five candidates were nominated to contest in the Kalangala Woman MP by-election slated for late this month.

They include  National Unity Platform’s (NUP) candidate, Irene Nampala, who is seeking to replace her late sister Hellen Nakimuli, who died this year. Nakimuli had retained her seat after winning the January 2026 Parliamentary polls. 

By Thursday evening, the Electoral Commission had nominated five candidates to contest in the Kalangala Woman MP by-election, after the position fell vacant following the sudden death of Hellen Nakimuli, who had retained the seat in the February general election. 

The ruling National Resistance Movement-NRM party is fronting the former Kalangala Woman MP Aidah Nabayiga, who lost the seat to Nakimuli during the 2021 general elections. 

The other candidates are: Sharifah Babirye Kaala, Agnes Nassuuna, and Hellen Flavia Nagawa, who were nominated as independents. 

Ronald Agaba, the Kalangala District Returning Officer, said by the close of the two-day nomination exercise on Thursday, five candidates had been cleared to contest. Six aspirants had expressed interest in contesting in the by-election, but one did not turn up for nomination.

 Agaba says the Electoral Commission will hold a campaign harmonisation meeting for all candidates on Friday.

Meanwhile, David Lewis Rubungoya, the NUP Secretary General, says the party has deployed a formidable campaign task force to ensure its candidate wins the by-election.

He says their teams are comprised of former and sitting MPs, and party mobilisers who he said are going to put up a spirited campaign against acts of violence and intimidation that have riddled the previous by-elections.

Rubongoya indicates that they have successfully convinced former aspirants to rally behind the official candidate, adding that they are contemplating meeting other opposition parties to ask them to support a joint candidate. 

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Similarly, the NRM has also deployed its campaign teams led by Rosemary Nansubuga Sseninde, the party’s Director for Mobilisation, and James Kinobe, the Elections Commissioner for Buganda.

Aidah Nabayiga, the NRM candidate, says she is hopeful they will win the by-election becausethe party still has solid mobilisation teams that are acquainted with the dynamics of the area. 

However, the independent candidates are also challenging the party candidates to give room for independent minds, who they say are required to represent the challenges affecting the island communities on Kalangala. 

After her nomination on Thursday, Agnes Nassuuna, one of the independent candidates in the race, observes that she intends to amplify the views for alternative or supplementary livelihood programs for the fisher folks in Kalangala district, who are currently victims of illegal fishing operations.