Violence, arrests mar Bukoto South voting
Rubaga North MP Moses Kasibante (R) argues with a police officer at Sseke Secondary School polling station yesterday. Mr Kasibante, an agent of DP candidate Mathias Nsubuga in the Bukoto South by-election, wanted an unidentified woman claiming to be an election monitor to identify herself. However, the police accused him of fomenting trouble and locked him up for three hours. Photo by Issa Aliga
What you need to know:
Unofficial results last night showed that Mr Mathias Nsubuga of the Democratic Party was leading in the hotly contested Bukoto South by-election. Mr Nsubuga had by press time garnered 6,255 votes against 5,131 votes of NRM’s Alintuma Nsambu, from 22 of the 66 polling stations. NRM has lost six of the last seven by-elections and this one was a silent contest between the ruling party and Mengo, the seat of Buganda Kingdom.
The Bukoto South by-election kicked off at a slow pace yesterday with heavy police deployment.
The Inspector General of Police, Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura, was close by monitoring the election after delays arising from the confusion surrounding the strong room that was opened before the lawful time.
The seat fell vacant in May after the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the Masaka High Court that nullified the election of Mr Muyanja Mbabaali as Bukoto South MP for lack of minimum academic qualifications, thus ordering the Electoral Commission to conduct fresh elections for the constituency.
According to the southern region police spokesperson, Mr Noah Serunjogi, a fracas ensued after the strong room containing the electoral material was found open before the lawful time, leading to a delay in the start of the electoral process.
The incident led to the arrest of 10 police officers, who were alleged to have tampered with electoral material.
“They were supposed to be guarding the strong room where the material was kept, but the room was opened before day,” Mr Serunjogi said.
Before the police officers’ incident, a group of MPs, Ms Betty Nambooze (Mukono Municipality) and Mr Muhammed Kawuma (Entebbe Municipality), Mr Deogratius Kiyingi (Bukomansimbi) and Mr Moses Kasibante (Rubaga North) had been arrested on Thursday morning for allegedly disrupting the electoral process when they set up a camp in Kinoni.
“However, they were later released with no charges,” Mr Serunjogi said.
In another occurrence, three councillors whose names were not disclosed along with a Daily Monitor correspondent, Bernard Mugaga, were detained at Masaka Central Police Station for four hours and later released on orders of police chief Lt. Gen. Kayihura.
Arrests
At Kikenene Polling Station in Kiseka Sub-county, the presiding officer, Mr Fred Ssemanda Omoding, was arrested for allegedly giving voters two ballot papers and possessing another 200 for unknown reasons.
The DPC for Lwengo, Mr Jonathan Boroza, said Mr Ssemanda was originally at Buyonga Polling Station in Kiseka Sub-county.
“The presiding officer was arrested from Kikenene, where he moved under unknown reasons from his original station in Buyonga and was being held at Kinoni Police Station.”
Asked whether the elections will be cancelled because of the chaos, the Electoral Commission chairman, Dr Badru Kiggundu, said they will not.
“We are not going to cancel the elections because we have tried to control the situation before it worsened and I have not received any formal complaint from any candidate,” Dr Kiggundu, who was monitoring voting at Kiwangala Polling Station in Kiseka Sub-county, said.
“But I am going to petition Parliament to strengthen the election laws because I have found two polling stations with youth armed with sticks and I have also witnessed the chaos in these elections.”
