CID records 300 new election offences

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Criminal Investigations Directorate has in the last three weeks recorded 313 more offences related to local government elections.

A senior detective at CID intimated to Uganda Radio Network –URN today that majority of the new cases are related to election malpractice where politicians attempted to bribe presiding officers to either stuff in pre-ticked ballot papers or alter results on declaration forms.

The attempts to smuggle in pre-ticked ballots, alter results or have people voting more than once sparked fights in some areas where more offences such as assault, destruction of voting material and damage of property were recorded.

“The presidential and parliamentary elections did not have many cases of malpractice but such reports were many during local government elections. We have several cases of assaults, threatening violence, voter bribery and destruction of voting material,” a detective said.

Assistant Superintendent of Police –ASP Charles Twine, who is also CID spokesperson said new cases have been recorded but they were still being compiled. “It is now improper to give figures we haven’t fully compiled. Local government elections have just been concluded and more reports are still coming in. We shall soon give you the full report,” says ASP Twine.

CID report on presidential and parliamentary elections which was also shared with the Inspector General of Police, Martin Ochola indicates that 250 were recorded during the January 14th polls. Ugandans voted for president and MPs on January 14th, district chairpersons and city mayors on January 20th, while division and municipality mayors were voted on January 25th.

“During the Presidential and Parliamentary elections, a total of 250 election-related offenses were registered in the country. And out of the 28 policing regions, 5 did not register any major incident,” reads part of the report shared with the IGP.

The new 313 local government offences, 250 presidential and parliamentary offences and 277 registered during campaign period bring the total of election offences registered since November last year to 840. This excludes the offences registered during the November 18 and 19th protests that followed the arrest of then National Unity Platform –NUP presidential candidate Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine.

Kyagulanyi’s arrest protests show that military and police killed 54 people and left over 100 nursing injuries. Over 1,200 people were arrested during and after the protests. Close to 50 people have been abducted by security operatives in the last three months.

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