NUP’s Maseruka wins Makerere University guild presidency 

The opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate, Robert Maseruka has been elected Makerere University guild president. 

According to results announced by Levi Tshilumba, the university electoral commission chairperson, Maseruka, a third-year student studying Journalism and Communication garnered 2,558 votes to beat his closest rival and fellow classmate Hilary Oremo Odwee who got 2,531 votes.

Forum for Democratic Change’s (FDC) Akankunda Sabiiti came third with 2,334 votes. The other candidates; National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) Baraka Nkoyooyo got 841 votes, Evans Murungi 189 votes, Andrew Lubinga 186 votes, Emmanuel Wanyama 180 votes, Mark Ssebunya 53 votes, and Julius Bigirwa Maxwell came last with 11 votes.

Maseruka who until earlier this week was an independent candidate saw his popularity increase when Margaret Nattabi, the NUP flagbearer got disqualified from the race for holding a public debate.

NUP later endorsed Maseruka who had earlier lost to Nattabi during party primaries. Nattabi herself urged her supporters to back Maseruka’s candidature which boosted his popularity.

Unlike the previous elections where candidates had the liberty to identify themselves with the national political parties of their preference, many candidates in this election were hesitant to associate themselves with their preferred parties due to the apprehension of being disqualified.

This came into effect after the university adopted the new guild statute which explicitly prohibits the interference of political parties in student politics.

Article 6.2 of the statute stipulates that; “The Makerere University Students Guild shall be non-partisan, non-denominational, and non-violent and shall be open to all students of Makerere University without discrimination”

The Friday virtual elections were however marred by technical glitches where some students got notifications indicating that they had already cast their votes yet, they were only accessing their portals for the first time while others received error messages, hindering their access to the portal.

Some first-year students and finalists also faced difficulties while logging in to the portal, whereas numerous students were unable to access the platform from outside the university.