NUP disputes Kayunga LC5 poll results, wants recount

The National Unity Platform (NUP) party has disputed the Kayunga District LC5  by-election  results announced by the Electoral Commission, putting NRM’s  Andrew Muwonge in the lead against their candidate Harriet Nakwedde.

In an interview with the Daily Monitor yesterday, NUP officials  called for a vote recount, claiming that their independent tally done by the party placed their candidate in a lead with 34,262 votes against the NRM candidate’s 20,164 votes. According to NUP claims, the other candidates shared 2,523 votes. 

They claimed that Ms Nakwedde won at 273 polling stations while Mr Muwonge won at 53 polling stations out of the 326 polling stations from which they managed to gather the declarations forms.  However , Daily Monitor could not independently verify this information.

Under the law, Electoral Commission (EC) is the only body that is mandated to announce election results.

The EC last week announced Mr Muwonge winner with 31,830 votes ahead of the Ms Nakwedde with 31,308 votes from the 337 polling stations in a by-election that turned chaotic as journalists, Opposition leaders, and supporters of the candidates contesting against NRM’s Muwonge were arrested on the eve of the polling day.

After declaring the winner, the police then quickly surrounded the EC staff and the chairperson-elect and led them out of the hall used to declare the final results.

Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, the NUP secretary general, said their tally was meant to expose the alleged fraudulent exercise.

“We have always told Ugandans that this government is out to silence all their voices. This by-election has shown how much the government doesn’t value the process and the lack of democracy that it holds. We won this election and everyone can see,” Mr Rubongoya said yesterday.

Later in the day, NUP leader Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, posted on his official Facebook page, 332 declaration forms indicating that the EC had erred in its declared results.

“We need to have an honest conversation about the direction of the struggle against dictatorship in this country. It is the oppressor and not the oppressed who defines the course of the struggle. Reading all your comments and thoughts it seems clear that Museveni is pushing the people of Uganda to the limits,”  Mr Kyagulanyi’s long Facebook post reads in part.

However, Mr Paul Bukenya, the EC spokesperson, advised the aggrieved parties to go to court.
“Our returning officer declared the winner and that is our position so I cannot comment about another result that has been compiled by another entity. But it is their right if they are not satisfied by the result to petition the court as it is provided for in the law,” he said.

The NUP officials said they obtained this information from declaration forms provided by their polling agents and some EC officials.

According to the NUP tally sheet, a copy  of which this newspaper has seen, in most of the polling stations where Mr Muwonge won Ms Nakwedde by a big margin, the number of votes do not tally with the number of voters in the area. The NUP officials said this was a sign of ballot staffing.

As the voting went on, videos were shared on social media appeared to indicate that by 6am, the number of ballot papers in the boxes at some polling stations were more than the number of people who had turned up to cast their votes  at that particular time.

One of the men in the video could be seen demanding to know why his name in the voter’s register had been ticked among those who had already voted and yet he had just arrived at the polling station.

Mr Bukenya said: “These complaints were brought to our complaints desk and they were fixed. But after every election, the returning officer is supposed to make a report of how all the incidents were solved, so I think we should wait for that report and see the details.”

Mr Rubongoya yesterday said they were exploring various options to resolve claims of vote rigging.
“The candidate may personally run to court but we know that the courts of laws are also infiltrated. So we are discussing as the leadership of the party to see how we can move forward. We first want to let Ugandans see that there is actually a problem,” Mr Rubongoya said last evening.

When contacted, Ms Nakwedde declined to speak to Daily Monitor, saying she was attending a meeting.
“I am unable to speak to you because I am in a meeting,” she said shortly before she hang up on the phone.

The EC results
Andrew Muwonge (NRM) - 31,830 votes
Harriet Nakwedde (NUP) - 31,308
Majid Nyanzi (IND) - 1,287
Boniface Musisi (IND) - 470
Jamilu Kamoga (IND) - 279
Anthony Waddimba (DP) - 158