A legal petition has been filed at the High Court in Kampala seeking to block three women from contesting for the Bukedea District Woman Member of Parliament seat, a move critics allege is a calculated effort to ensure the incumbent, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, runs unopposed in the 2026 general elections.
The case, Misc. Cause No. _ of 2025, pits the applicant, Akol Zipporah, against three aspirants—Akol Helen Odeke, Norma Susan Otai, and Alupo Mercy Marion—and the Electoral Commission (EC) as the fourth respondent.
According to a Notice of Motion filed by the applicant, the core argument is that the three aspiring candidates are not registered voters in the respective parishes of Bukedea District they claim to belong to. The applicant seeks several declarations from the court, stating that Parish Tribunals in May 2025 ordered the deletion of the respondents’ names from the local voters’ rolls.
Based on these alleged tribunal decisions, the applicant is asking the court for orders of prohibition to bar the Electoral Commission from nominating the three women for the parliamentary seat in the elections slated for January 2026.
The matter has sparked significant political controversy. Sources close to the aspirants, particularly Alupo Mercy Marion who is the candidate for the National Unity Platform (NUP), have denounced the case as a sham. They claim that the alleged Parish Tribunal hearings never took place and that the candidates were never notified or given a chance to defend themselves.
The case has been quickly scheduled for a hearing this coming Monday, placing the judiciary under intense scrutiny. Observers will be watching to see if the court will sanction what the opposition describes as a “ridiculous abuse of authority.”
The Daily Monitor newspaper, in its September 26, 2025 edition, had already highlighted the brewing contention under the headline “3 women seeking to unseat Among sued.”
The outcome of this legal battle will critically determine the competitive landscape for the Bukedea Woman MP race and could further fuel debates about electoral integrity and political fairness in the lead-up to the 2026 polls.
