Kampala — Calm has returned to Bukedea district after the NRM elections which were marred by riots and gunfire.

The NRM office in Bukedea remains closed as rioters had threatened to burn it down as well as beat up MP aspirant George Ekuma and the district chairperson for allegedly masterminding rigging in Kachumbala sub-county.

On Wednesday, chaos reigned at the NRM headquarters as the Police fired in the air for over 20 minutes to disperse an angry mob, which had attacked poll officials in the sub-county, accusing them of malpractice.

More Police reinforcement was called in from Kumi, Soroti and Mbale to contain the situation.

After the intervention of the mid-eastern (Teso) regional Police commander, Alison Agaba, the Bukedea returning officer, Joseph Ekom, announced the cancellation of the poll results for Kachumbala.

The rival camps included supporters of George Ekuma, John Bosco Ikojo, Rev. Sam Ebukalin, James Ongole and William Tukei. Each camp accused the other of vote rigging and changing of the actual votes. Fresh elections will be held tomorrow, according to sources.

By press time, all the ballot papers and material used in the flopped polls remained at the heavily-guarded Police station. Despite the calm, rival camps for parliamentary aspirants for Bukedea county continue to accuse each other of vote rigging. "The officials handling the exercise falsified results. Which polling station has 7,000 voters in Kachumbala?" David Omagor asked.

Other aspirants who contested the poll results were John Bosco Ikojo and Abu Bakar Obilan. Obilan called for the cancellation of the results for the entire district.