KALIRO -- The State Minister for Cooperatives and incumbent MP for Bulamogi Northwest constituency, Frederick Ngobi Gume, has declared that he will return to the 2026 elections as an independent candidate after losing the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag.

Gume, who has served as MP for 10 years, cited electoral malpractices including result manipulation as the reason for his loss, insisting he remains "the people's choice."

"Villages didn't vote but they falsely claimed that they voted, people were denied their democratic rights and somebody got 20 votes and instead 420 was reflected," he said.

On Saturday, September 20, 2025, Gume was welcomed by jubilant supporters nearly two months after the primaries in which he lost to George Patrick Kasajja.

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A procession of supporters escorted him for about 10 kilometers from Lumbuye swamp to Nawaikoke Sub-county headquarters, where he later held a rally.

Despite running as an independent, Gume urged his supporters to vote for President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in the 2026 general elections.

He pledged to lobby for better services in health, education, and infrastructure, including upgrading Nawaikoke Health Centre III to IV, extending power to more villages, tarmacking the Kaliro-Nawaikoke road, and ensuring each of the four sub-counties in the constituency gets a seed school.

"We started as a new constituency under my leadership and I have been here for 10 years. There is no need to recycle leadership at a time when we need schools, health centers, and roads," Gume said.

He added that his leadership was a "revolution" that could not be overturned by manipulated elections.

As a gesture of reconciliation after what he described as violent and irregular primaries, he pledged to donate a bull and 500kg of rice to supporters in each sub-county for unity gatherings.