A first-year Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery student has won the Local Council One (LC1) Chairperson seat at Mitchell Hall, Makerere University, defeating the incumbent Custodian in a 54-0 landslide as part of the nationwide LC1 elections held across Uganda on Tuesday, 28th July 2026.
The vote at Mitchell Hall, one of the villages within Makerere University, was conducted alongside the Electoral Commission’s nationwide exercise, which saw polling take place in all 71,214 villages across the country on the same day, gazetted by government as a public holiday specifically to allow eligible citizens to turn out and vote. Halls of residence at Makerere are organised and registered under the same Local Council system used countrywide, with each hall treated as its own village complete with an elected Chairperson and executive committee.
Musasizi Edrine, who is only in his first year pursuing Medicine and Surgery, contested under the slogan “The Voice of the People,” with campaign material branding his prospective term 2026 to 2031, in line with the five-year cycle used for LC1 leadership nationwide.
Edrine polled 54 votes against zero for the sitting Custodian, a position that typically carries seniority and incumbency advantage within the hall’s leadership structure. The unanimous result stands out as one of the more emphatic upsets to come out of this year’s polls at Makerere.
Content creator jozekatsMedia captured the voting exercise on the ground at Mitchell Hall, sharing footage of residents lining up to cast their votes on polling day.
For a first-year student to unseat an incumbent Custodian so decisively, and so early into campus life, is no small feat, particularly in a demanding programme like Medicine and Surgery, where the academic workload leaves little room for campaign season. Edrine’s win suggests he was able to balance his coursework with campaigning while still winning over every voting resident at Mitchell Hall.
His campaign message called on residents to come out and vote, thanking supporters in the Lusoga phrase “Mundabila nga daala,” an expression of gratitude and a call for continued support.
The LC1 Chairperson and hall leadership structure represents residents in matters of welfare, discipline, and coordination with hall wardens and university administration. With Mitchell Hall’s vote taking place as part of the same nationwide exercise electing Village Chairpersons across all of Uganda’s 71,214 villages, the result reflects a broader wave of new grassroots leadership taking shape countrywide following the long-delayed LC1 elections, last held back in 2018.
CampusBee will continue to follow results from hall leadership elections across Makerere’s other residence halls as they come in.
