UgandaToday: Bwowe Petitions Electoral Commission Over ‘Phantom Nakawa West’ Nominations
Kampala | Uganda Today — The Electoral Commission (EC) has summoned all candidates nominated for the Nakawa West parliamentary race to respond to a petition lodged by lawyer and former Makerere Guild President, Mr. Ivan Bwowe, who contests the legality of their nominations.
Petition Challenges Existence of “Nakawa West”
In a letter dated 6th November 2025, signed by Richard Baabo Kamugisha, the Acting Secretary of the Electoral Commission, the Commission notified seven candidates—among them Joel Ssenyonyi, Nasasira Happy, and Burora Herbert Anderson—that a complaint had been formally lodged questioning their nominations for what Bwowe calls a non-existent constituency.
According to Bwowe, the officially gazetted and legally recognized constituency is Nakawa Division West, not Nakawa West, the latter of which he calls “a phantom creation never demarcated or gazetted by the EC.”
“The 1st to 7th respondents were nominated for Nakawa West, a phantom constituency, never demarcated or gazetted by the EC. Therefore, their nominations are void ab initio in law,” Bwowe argues in his petition”.
Hearing Scheduled for November 10
The Commission has scheduled a hearing for Monday, 10th November 2025, at 12:00 pm, inviting both the complainant and the respondents to appear before it to defend their positions.
The petition has triggered public and legal debate on whether the EC’s administrative handling of constituency names can invalidate entire nominations—especially if the name used in nomination papers does not appear in the Government Gazette.
Nomenclature Dispute Turns Jurisdictional
Legal observers, including author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, have weighed in, saying the issue goes beyond mere semantics.
Kakwenza writes that under Section 19(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act, 2005, a candidate can only be declared unopposed if the nomination occurs within a lawfully recognized electoral area.
“If the area in which one is nominated does not legally exist, the nomination itself collapses like a sack of potatoes,” he noted, adding that the matter is jurisdictional, not cosmetic”.
However, he acknowledges that the Commission might invoke Section 58 of the Electoral Commission Act, which allows correction of clerical errors, arguing that if “Nakawa West” is deemed a colloquial or shortened version of “Nakawa Division West”, the nominations may still stand.
Possible Implications
Should Bwowe’s argument prevail, all seven candidates could see their nominations nullified, potentially leaving Bwowe as the sole validly nominated candidate for the constituency.
The petition also raises deeper questions about the EC’s procedural integrity and attention to legal detail, with critics accusing the body of administrative laxity.
“If Bwowe’s evidence is clean and the EC cannot produce a gazette showing ‘Nakawa West’, then paradoxically it makes him the only one legally standing in the real place,” Kakwenza concludes.
EC’s Image at Stake
The controversy has placed renewed scrutiny on the EC, with some analysts suggesting that such clerical lapses, if proven, undermine public confidence in electoral management.
As the Commission prepares for the November 10 hearing, both legal experts and political watchers await what could become a precedent-setting case in Uganda’s electoral jurisprudence.
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