Oyam North by-election: Ballot papers ticked at gunpoint

People driving in a police van on July 6 raided Wanglobo Polling Station, Otwal Sub-county in Oyam District and ticked 250 ballot papers at gunpoint.
 
Mr. Walter Wacho, the presiding officer, said the gangsters who were escorted by police and soldiers raided the polling station at the border between Oyam and Omoro District, ordered him to hand over five ballot booklets before they took charge of the voting exercise.
 
“I kept quiet again for some two minutes then the guys came again and said, ‘we want the thing, we want to go away. We are going everywhere,” Mr Wacho said.
 
“I had no option but to give them five booklets. They went back to their vehicle and ticked the ballot papers, brought back 250 pre-ticked ballot papers and told me you do the accountability thing.”    
 
Wanglobo Polling Station has 562 registered voters.
 
Mr Jimmy Akena Obote, the president of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party who visited Wanglobo Primary School, said Oyam North by-election is not free and fair.
 
He said after the frightening scene, the Electoral Commission officials persuaded people to continue voting saying the results would be separate later.

“I firmly rejected and the voters also rejected that idea,” Mr. Akena said.
 
“Therefore, the Electoral Commission is now looking for other ballot papers such that the voting can start afresh. And while we are here sorting out this issue, it has been done again at a primary school down the road. They have done the same thing [pre-ticking ballot papers] forcibly. Throughout this voting, I am having my leaders being arrested, and many being intimidated. This is not a free and fair election,” Mr Akena added.
 
North Kyoga regional police spokesperson, SP Patrick Jimmy Okema, said he was not aware of the incident.
 
“I have not got that report. If it had come then it might not have reached my desk. However, yesterday when the Electoral Commission met, guidance was given to all stakeholders who were there. In case of anything which is unusual, it is upon the party officials, the candidates, the agents to make a formal report,” Mr. Okema told Monitor.
 
He added that, “We have a command centre for a joint security team and also a complaint desk at the Tally Centre. So, probably, I need to inquire with the spokesperson for the Electoral Commission and verify that.”     
 
A Commissioner with Electoral Commission, Mr Stephen Tashobya, confirmed the exercise was somehow marred with some isolated cases of election malpractice.
 
He regretted the incident at Wanglobo Primary School and said the voting was put on halt as the Commission sourced other ballot papers for fresh voting.
 
“The assurance is that the Commission is in charge, we are around. If any other inccident happens, we are definitely going to take action as we have done here. We have would have loved that we have a clean exercise to the satisfaction of the people of this area,” he said.
 
At Bar-omele Polling Station, also in Otwal Sub-county, polling officials reported that some goons being escorted by security destroyed all voting materials and left.
 
The same situation was reported at Acokara Primary School, where security operatives allegedly collected people’s phones as some people grabbed ballot papers and ticked them.
 
Mr Benson Odongo, the LC2 chairperson of Abella Parish in Aleka Sub-county, said two supporters of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party were arrested by security operatives at Awei-kwo Trading Centre before they were released after UPC leaders intervened.
 
Mr Odongo also said heavily armed security personnel fired teargas at the electorates at Awei-kwo Trading Centre.
 
“I am one of the eight people that inhaled teargas,” he said. “Police are intimidating people, while there is a Resident District Commissioner who is busy dishing out money to voters,” he said on the phone.
 
There are 90,733 registered voters in the eight sub-counties in the constituency. Of these, 47,939 (52.83%) are females while 42,794 (47.17%) are males.
 
The vacancy for the directly-elected Member of Parliament, Oyam County North Constituency, occurred as a result of the death of the former legislator Col (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola.
 
Pte Wilson Sabiiti, a military guard, shot the minister dead at his home in Kyanja, a Kampala suburb, on May 2.
 
Four people are in the race to replace the late Engola. They are; academician and researcher Dr Eunice Apio Otuko of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), and Mr Samuel Engola Okello, a son of the slain minister that the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party picked as its flag bearer. Other candidates are Mr Daniel Okello of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and Mr Newton Freddy Okello of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
 
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