Justice Forum (JEEMA) party candidate Ashman Basalirwa has been declared winner of Friday’s Member of Parliament elections for the newly created Bugiri Municipality.

Bugiri District returning officer Christine Kunihira declared Mr. Basalirwa winner with 3,476  votes at a few minutes past midnight.

National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate John Francis Oketcho came second with 2,894 votes and Eunice Namatende of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party came third after garnering 830 votes.

Earlier on, basing on provisional results, FDC conceded defeat via Twitter and congratulated Ashman Basalirwa.

Early results #BugiriElection show that the people of Bugiri have chosen @BasalirwaAsuman as their new MP. We congratulate Mr. Basalirwa on his victory. We also thank @EuniceNamatende and all our volunteers for your courage and support during the campaign.

— FDC (@FDCOfficial1) July 27, 2018

The heated polls registered some chaos after Bukooli Central MP and NRM Caucus Vica Chairperson Solomon Serwanyi was assaulted by angry voters who accused him of bribing voters.

The legislator drew his gun in the crowd and used paper spray to defend himself.