Opposition National Unity Platform’s Shamim Nambassa is the 87th guild president of Makerere University. Nambassa secured a landslide victory in the polls held yesterday Friday. Nambassa garnered 5,610 votes representing 54% of the votes cast.
Her Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) counterpart and closest rival, Obeid Kamulegeya obtained 1,548 votes. Nambassa’s best performance was from the school of medicine where she obtained 481 votes beating Kamulegeya who managed 72 votes.
Others candidates were Ronald Mutsinzi who garnered 1,187 votes, Agrippa Byayesu 697, Bukala Silve 649, Moses Tumusiime 145, Martin Tumuhaise 117, John Mwase 117, Sam Ayeyo 70, and Victor Omega 32.
The university used both electronic and physical voting. Only first and final-year students were present to vote physically because of the staggered mode of learning under Covid-19 restrictions. Nambassa was able to win the favour of a number of first-years, who, through interviews were not aware of any other candidates in the guild race.
For the finalists, Nambassa had gained popularity from her tenure as the education minister in the 86th guild cabinet where she also doubled as the GRC for the school of public health. She replaces Ivan Ssempijja.
According to Ssempijja, he endorses the guild elect because of the resilience and accountability to students she exhibited during his tenure. Nelson Ssewanyana, one who stepped down from the race after Nambassa won in the NUP primaries noted that she is the kind of person that gets things done.
William Kananga, the chairperson of Makerere University electoral commission noted that despite having to work within a short time of about one month, the fairness of the voting exercise has not been disputed by students. He, however, pointed out that the e-voting system is still a challenge to be addressed as a number of students failed to vote.
Nambassa is a third-year student pursuing a bachelor’s in pharmacy at the college of Health Sciences.
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