EC fires 20 officials over malpractices

At least 20 Electoral Commission officials have been fired for taking part in vote rigging in the ruined February 23 Kampala mayoral election. A source inside the EC has told Sunday Monitor that the officials have been fired after internal investigations pointed to the fact that they connived with candidates’ agents to carry out ballot stuffing.

EC spokesman Charles Ochola confirmed this to this newspaper yesterday. He said the officers had been sacked for breaching the election procedures. “These officers have been found guilty and have been sent back home.” Mr Ochola said. “They will never work for the EC again.”

Mr Ochola, however, did not reveal the names of the officers, arguing that the EC will only make them public after internal consultations.

Mutazindwa survives
Sunday Monitor has leant that all electoral officers for Kampala district, save for returning officer Molly Mutazindwa, have been sacked and a new team constituted mainly of officers from up-country has been put in place to oversee tomorrow’s mayoral election. Sunday Monitor has also learnt that the sacked officers were found personally liable for distributing ballot papers to one of the candidate in the Kampala race.

Mr Ochola said Ms Mutazindwa has not been sent home because she was acting on directives from EC lawyers. The fresh mayoral polls are scheduled for tomorrow and six candidates are in the race.

“We have a new team of 500 officers which will be taking care of the exercise,” Mr Ochola said, adding, “We are currently briefing them on what to do. Hopefully, we shall have a smooth exercise in Kampala.”