TAKEAWAYS

• Minister Justine Nameere says NUP folks are fuming after she crushed their attempt to overturn her Masaka City win.
• The lawyer-turned-minister bragged about outsmarting rivals by documenting every detail of the messy vote count.
• Nameere used her legal skills to expose supposed rigging by police and the NUP camp during her big courtroom showdown.

Masaka City Woman MP Justine Nameere, who also serves as State Minister for Local Government, has claimed that members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) are unhappy with her after she successfully defended her electoral victory in court.

Nameere made the remarks during a television interview following the dismissal of an election petition challenging her victory over alleged electoral malpractice. Since the court decision, the minister has been celebrating what she considers a triumph over attempts to overturn her win.

According to the junior minister, her success in court resulted from being prepared during the vote-counting process, where she allegedly documented details that later became crucial to her defence.

She claimed that her decision to carefully record events during the tallying process helped expose alleged irregularities involving the returning officer, the NUP camp and police officers, whom she accused of attempting to deny her victory.

“The NUP people are angry because I outsmarted them. I knew what I was doing, and when the matter went to court, I had what I needed to defend my victory,” Nameere said.

The minister, who is also a lawyer, attributed her success to understanding electoral procedures and knowing the importance of gathering evidence from the beginning of the vote-counting process.

She also cited a separate election dispute involving NUP candidate Dr Hilderman, who challenged the victory of Mawokota north MP Amelia Kyambadde, arguing that his win had been stolen. Nameere claimed that Hilderman’s admission that he was not present during the vote count weakened his case.

“For me, as a lawyer, I knew the importance of being present and documenting everything. You cannot go to court without the evidence needed to support your claims,” she added.

The vocal MP maintained that her legal knowledge and political experience gave her an advantage, insisting that her preparedness was key to the outcome.

Nameere has been in celebratory mode ever since Court declared the undisputed winner of the Masaka city election which has been married by controversy in its aftermath.