UGANDA'S FLAWED ELECTIONS: Nominations exercise critique

72. As a result, two UPC candidates were declared elected unopposed. In Kasese North, the electoral contest was reduced to a straight contest between the UPC and the UPM, which the latter won by a narrow margin.

73. The intervention of the Electoral Commission to rule out the DP candidates at the eleventh hour contrasts with the last minute reinstatement of the UPC candidate for Masaka North, whose papers had previously been ruled out of order by reason of non-presentation of an income tax certificate. This was explained on the basis that the returning officer had written to the Electoral Commission some 4 days after the close of nominations requesting that the candidate's name be added to the list of nominated candidates.

However, this suggestion must be contrasted with the well-known rejection of his papers on nomination day and the omission of his name from two different lists of candidates published by the Electoral Commission. We find difficulty in accepting that clerical error lay at the root of this amendment, and we could not but conclude that not only were the DP candidates in Kasese unlawfully disqualified but the UPC candidate in Masaka North reinstated illegally.

74. As we observed in our Interim Report, due allowance must beirade for the superior organisation of the UPC, which undoubtedly contributed in large measure towards its candidates successfully achieving nomination. "However, when we view the way in which some returning officers acted when processing nomination papers of other parties, and the part played by the Electoral Commission itself in respect of Kasese and Masaka North, a finding of partiality cannot be resisted.

75. The effect of the unopposed returns on the arithmetic of the outcome is difficult to assess. Some of theseats in-question would almost certainly have fallen to the UPC had polling taken place, but equally in some others the DP would have stood a good chance of victory.

76. By virtue of the amendment to the electoral law to which we referred in para. 19 it lies with the courts to provide redress if the parties adversely affected choose to seek it.