Of the 98 votes cast, Ms Kadaga garnered 68, beating Australia’s Lisa Baker to the seat.
Ms Kadaga, who campaigned on the promise of rallying women parliamentarians across the Commonwealth to fight for increased welfare and political representation. She will hold the seat for the next three years. The elections took place at the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Conference in South Africa.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Kadaga promised to work on increasing women influence in Africa and around the world. “I will enhance political party participation, more equity for women, more access to justice and I will use the experience I have from the CWP Africa region to ensure that the people we lead have the best services,” she said.

Winning support
Two days before the vote, the CWP-Africa had endorsed Ms Kadaga for the post. Campaigning for Ms Kadaga, Ms Lindiwe Maseko, the Speaker of the Gauteng Province, South Africa, said African women should be assured that Ms Kadaga would put across their needs in the CWP and all other international forums. “We are sure that Ms Kadaga has travelled the road and she is tested in the fight for women,” Ms Maseko said.

Speaking to the Daily Monitor after the victory, Ms Kadaga, who until recently was chairing the CWP Africa branch, said: “It will be much easier to push for democracy, good governance and easy access to social services, equality and good leadership for the women.”

The chairperson of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association, Ms Betty Amongi, said the win was good news for Ugandan women, who aim for increased rule of law and increased representation at the international stage.

MPs from Uganda attending the conference said the victory is a great achievement to Parliament.
“The platform that women have attained should then translate into the improvement of the rural woman who mandate us to speak for them on issues of hunger, discrimination and good governance,” Ms Christine Abia, the Arua Woman MP, said.

The CWP was founded in 1989 so that women at conferences could discuss ways to increase female representation in parliaments and work towards gender mainstreaming.