The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Independent presidential candidate John Katumba polled more than 100 votes from about seven polling stations across the country according to the tally by the Electoral Commission from polls held on January 14.
Katumba who rarely polled votes above five at most of the polling stations ended up registering the highest number of votes more than any other candidate at some of these polling stations. The polling stations include; Maganjo B C/U [NANO-NZ], Maya Primary school-Negambidde and Nakyesanja (O-Z) Takirambudde ground all in Wakiso district, Nakifuma East [NAN-Z] in Mukono, Nyakasojo COU in Kasese, Donga Borehole in Mayuge and Agwata Catholic Church in Abim.
At Maganjo B Church of Uganda [NANO-NZ] situated in Maganjo parish, Nansana municipality in Wakiso district, EC data shows that Katumba obtained 333 votes followed by Museveni with 61 votes and Kyagulanyi with one vote while the rest did not register any vote.
But when our reporter revisited the polling station, the revelation threw whoever heard about it into laughter wondering where Katumba got such votes. “Are you talking about Katumba oyee? They asked before erupting into laughter. That is not possible, another resident exclaimed. Several boda boda riders near the polling station were amazed that this had happened in their area.
Although some residents could not remember the exact figure scored by different candidates, they were pretty sure that Kyagulanyi commonly known as Bobi Wine had won the majority votes.
Hilary Ndyamuhaki who owns a shop just near the polling station recalled that on polling day, he visited the seven polling stations hosted at the Church to know what had come out of the day-long process. Ndyamuhaki however recalls that Bobi Wine scored above 300 votes on all the polling stations at the Church.
More people interviewed in the area carried similar views but none had recorded the actual votes. After a long search, URN traced the National Unity Platform parish supervisor, Racheal Nakalanzi who had a book where results of each polling station were registered in addition to pictures of the declaration of results forms.
Nakalanzi’s records showed that Katumba had scored zero and that votes that appear in the EC tally, against Katumba’s name belonged to Kyagulanyi. Museveni’s votes remained as recorded in the final tally but Norbert Mao who had zero on the official tally sheet had scored at least one vote.
Nakalanzi was surprised that the Electoral Commission could make such a mistake and added that such errors could have been engineered to deny Kyagulanyi his victory.
Elia Nayebare, a resident of Kawanda-Nakyesanja also had a record indicating that Kyagulanyi’s votes at Nakyesanja (O-Z) Takirambudde ground had been given to Katumba. Nayebare notes that EC’s data was peculiar and needed to be audited.
URN has also obtained a photocopy of the declaration of results (DR) from Nakifuma East-NAN-Z indicating that Kyagulanyi obtained the highest number of votes at the polling station. The form indicates that Kyagulanyi polled 258 votes, followed by Museveni who received 51 votes. Linda Nancy Kalembe and Patrick Oboi Amuriat also got one vote each at the station while the rest of the candidates, including Katumba scored zero, far different from the record as represented by the Electoral Commission. Here, the commission had given Katumba a sum of 258 votes.
Benjamin Tamale who presided over the election in question at the said polling station was surprised at the revelation. Milly Nakateebe, a resident of Naggalama said the final result as reflected by the Electoral Commission was demoralising because as far as she can remember, Katumba never appeared among the top three candidates in the race at the time of vote counting.
Bernard Ssempaka, the Nakifuma-Naggalama town council NUP coordinator wonders why the electoral commission among all the electoral areas in Uganda chose to make an alteration of numbers in Nakifuma where it is evident that Kyagulanyi won at almost all the polling stations.
The election final tally sheet also misrepresented results from two polling stations from Entebbe municipality awarding Kyagulanyi’s victory at the stations to independent candidate Henry Tumukunde. The polling stations are Entebbe Comprehensive SSS A-BUS and Kawafu Namagembe’s Place (NAM-Z), where according to the record, Tumukunde obtained 371 votes and 454 votes respectively.
However, voters and electoral officials from the area dispute the figures. Unlike the first case where Kyagulanyi’s votes were given to Katumba, here Kyagulanyi’s votes were maintained but the tally gifted Tumukunde with votes from nowhere.
Jovan Kasule who was the presiding officer at Entebbe Comprehensive SSS A-BUS during the election in question recalls that Tumukunde polled less than four votes and Kyagulanyi gathered 200 votes, same as those in the EC final tally sheet.
Kasule also noted that although the final sheet gave Museveni only two votes, he actually obtained 148 votes which put him in the second position at the station followed by Amuriat with 11 votes, while the rest of the other candidates got less than 10 votes each.
Busingye Bwambale, a polling agent for candidate Museveni at the station since 2001 also confirms that Tumukunde did not win at the polling station.
In a similar way, agents for several presidential candidates at Kawafu Namagembe’s place (NAM-Z) refuted the data presented by the Electoral Commission. On condition of not citing their names, the agents say the electoral body could have inflated the numbers of voters who voted and also voted for Tumukunde. They add that Museveni’s votes were swapped with those for Mwesigye. As a result, Mwesigye was given 85 votes and Museveni two votes.
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URN
