Prominent journalist Solomon Sserwanjja has been elected Local Council One (LC1) chairperson for Bamutakudde Village in Kyampisi Sub-county, Mukono District, following a closely contested election.
In the polls held on Tuesday, Sserwanjja secured 106 votes, narrowly defeating National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Badru Lule, who garnered 105 votes.
Speaking during a recent media briefing ahead of the elections, Sserwanjja pledged to personally pay allowances for members of his Local Council committee, arguing that village leaders who dedicate significant time to serving their communities deserve compensation.
“I come from a rich village, and I will personally pay my committee members because leaders should not expect people who do the donkey work and spend an entire month in the office to serve without pay,” he said.
The elections saw Ugandans in more than 71,000 villages across the country vote for new LC1 chairpersons in the first nationwide village-level elections after years of postponements.
Uganda last held nationwide LC1 elections on July 10, 2018, marking the first village-level polls in 17 years after the previous elections in 2001.
Since then, Parliament has extended the tenure of LC1 leaders six consecutive times, with each extension lasting six months.
Uganda’s Local Council system dates back to 1986, when President Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement introduced the then Resistance Councils to promote grassroots participation in local governance.
The first elections under the system were held in 1989 using the lining-up voting method, where voters stand behind the candidate of their choice—a system that remains in use today.
