Mwiru win does not mean Jinja East by-election was free and fair

Even if an opposition party wins, in a by-election or even in some constituencies during general elections, it does not mean that election process was free and fair. This is because in every election the opposition parties do not compete with the NRM party but with the NRM government machinery. Take the just concluded by-election in Jinja East where Paul Mwiru emerged winner.

Mwiru won because FDC was able to neutralise the gross abuse of government machinery, partly because in one constituency the use of the government machinery is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is an advantage because of the availability of huge State resources of money, personnel, vehicles and the visible over-deployment of the forces of repression.

A daily tabloid, generally partial to NRM, reported that just two officials were given Shs400 million for campaign and election expenditure. In addition, there is also the psychological effect of the assumed partiality to NRM of the Electoral Commission. But the use of government machinery, on polling day, is also a disadvantage because though large amounts of money are available, they are not necessarily disbursed for election purposes.

But more importantly, though there were more than 20 RDCs, more than 20 MPs and ministers and a number of presidential assistants and advisers ,their activities, generally illegal, could not be carried out openly. These officials could only go around discreetly distributing money and whispering instructions to minions who could or could not carry them out.

The forces of repression too deployed massively but all they could do was to drive up and down, in what is called a “show of force” i.e. intimidation, but in Jinja there is no more fear of these intimidation tactics. What used to be called “demystification of the gun” has, in Jinja, changed to “demystification of the forces of repression”, which means demystification of the gun and those whose tools of work are guns.

In Jinja East, there were 51 polling stations grouped in 18 polling station clusters and within and in the vicinity of each polling station cluster there were deployed hundreds of police personnel and along the streets there were numerous vehicles of different shapes and sizes, heavily laden with police and military police (red top) personnel menacingly driving up and down. The Electoral Commission was represented by Prof. Dr. Badru Kiggundu with some of his commissioners and senior officers.

To be fair to the Electoral Commission, they appointed EC officers as supervisors and presiding officers for all polling stations and this was commendable as it removed the possibility of local influence. This was how the NRM government machinery looked like.

On the other side there was FDC, DP and UPC. I never found out on which side the independent was leaning. The FDC had the following budget for polling day, which I have pasted from the e-mail of the FDC chief electoral commissioner:

Proposed Budget for Jinja Municipality East By-Elections:
Facilitating polling agents on polling day- 2 agents per polling station*10,000*51 stations=1,020,000/
Two tally centres (FDC tally centre and EC one)- 5 FDC representatives * 2 centres *100,000/ =1,000,000/
Airtime for agents and supervisors- 5000 *200 people* =1,000,000/
Boda Boda cyclists to transport lunch to polling stations, collect results, transport some sick voters- 20 of them*30,000/ each =600,000/
Fuel for party EC to supervise the process- 150 litres of petrol*3600 =540,000/
Airtime for party EC officials- 25,000/* 4 people =100,000/
Refund of nomination fees to the candidate =200,000/
Miscellaneous =400,000/
Total =4,860,000/=

This budget was somewhat exceeded because many FDC leaders and supporters from outside the constituency, who volunteered for polling day responsibilities, met their own expenses. I was most of the time at Main Street Primary School cluster of seven polling stations where NRM’s Nathan Nabeta voted at polling station No. 6 at 9.00 am in the company of Hon. Lydia Wanyoto and a few other people.

He lined up behind a few voters and did not greet the voter in front of him. I watched his body language and knew that I was watching a beaten man. At polling station No.6, Mwiru got 260, Nabeta 142, DP 6, Independent 1, UPC 0 and spoilt votes 5.

Mr Ruzindana is a former IGG and former MP.

a_ruzindana@yahoo.com