By Andrew Irumba Katusabe [Sankara]
The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has this week entered a decisive phase of its internal elections, with thousands of delegates converging in Kampala for the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and the much-anticipated National Delegates Conference. 
The official program began last week with the Central Executive Committee (CEC) retreat between August 20–22, followed by accreditation of National Executive Council (NEC) delegates on August 22 and a full NEC sitting on August 23. On August 24, SIG delegates were accredited at UICT Nakawa before Monday’s elections at Kololo Independence Grounds, presided over by President Yoweri Museveni. The main National Delegates Conference is scheduled for August 27–28, also at Kololo, where the party will endorse its presidential flag bearer and elect top leaders to the Central Executive Committee ahead of 2026.
But even before the climax, Monday’s SIG elections descended into sharp controversy, particularly in the Entrepreneurs’ League where former Tororo legislator Sanjay Tanna and four other contenders — King Ceasor Mulenga, Phillip Kwijuka Kakuru, Mukesh Shukla, and Edison Ruyondo — jointly petitioned the NRM Electoral Commission over what they termed “high-level irregularities.”
In a strongly worded petition to the party’s electoral body, the candidates alleged widespread malpractice including forged accreditation cards, delegates without valid national IDs, missing names from the official register, and secretive transportation of delegates to foreign countries and hidden hotels where rival aspirants allegedly had exclusive access.
They further complained that most candidates were denied access to delegates in the final 15 days of campaigns, while the number of people in attendance at Kololo “was more than triple the official register of eligible voters.” The petitioners also pointed to claims of delegates’ cards being purchased and distributed by one of the candidates in non-designated venues such as hotels — acts they say cast doubt on the credibility of the process.
“The matter before us contravenes the spirit of the party and brings the electoral process into disrepute,” the petitioners wrote, urging the NRM Electoral Commission to postpone the poll until thorough investigations are completed.
President Museveni, while opening the SIG conference at Kololo, warned sternly against corruption, bribery and “hiding of delegates,” reminding members that such vices were the very reason he went to the bush to fight past regimes. “Those practices are what killed UPC, and we cannot allow them to infiltrate NRM,” the President said.
The NRM Secretariat had earlier cautioned aspirants against facilitating delegates outside the official party framework, noting that each delegate was only meant to receive a modest refund for transport and meals. Yet reports indicate some candidates went overboard, fully accommodating and hosting delegates in lavish hotels or whisking them abroad, practices critics describe as outright vote-buying.
As the main Delegates Conference looms later this week, all eyes remain on how the party will handle the Entrepreneurs’ League standoff. Whether the elections proceed, are cancelled, or are re-run after investigations will set the tone for the rest of the internal processes that are expected to shape NRM’s march towards 2026.
