The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | George Kule was startled when a bunch of strange—journalists—arrived at his home around midday sometime early November asking why people in his village never voted the National Resistance Movement-NRM presidential candidate, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in 2016 presidential election.
Kule is the LCI chairman of Kasemire village. Museveni scored zero votes at Kasemire COU, a polling station in this village, according to 2016 presidential election results. It’s the only polling station where the president never got a single vote. Kule was stunned because he claims to have voted for Museveni contrary to what was recorded by the Electoral Commission.
Equally, five other people including three women and two men who were at Kule’s home locked surprised. Kasemire is situated in Kyondo sub-county in Bukonzo East Constituency, Kasese, a district Museveni lost to Forum for Democratic Change-FDC presidential candidate, Kizza Besigye. Even with the record from EC, Kule claimed that Museveni won at the polling station.
Did Museveni win at Kasemire COU? The answer has been hard to find, like searching for a needle in a haystack. Those with the answers are at best ambiguous. Jessica Mbambu, who was the presiding officer at the polling station, adds another layer of perplexity to the search for the right answer.
For the time she has been at presiding officer at Kasemire C.O.U, she claimed in a phone interview that “FDC has been getting more votes than NRM.” This was before I told her that EC records show that Museveni scored zero at the polling station. When I told her, she said, “certainly, no. It cannot be a zero.” Maybe, she said “some people voted Museveni and the votes were invalid.”
But there wasn’t a single invalid vote at this polling station, according to the EC data. The polling station had the lowest voter turnout—47.3 percent—which raises more doubt. Mbambu declined to give an estimate of what Museveni and Besigye could have scored at the polling station. She argued that it’s the declaration form that can answer this puzzle.
“If we could get the declaration form, that is the only proof. I may tell you what I think and it may not be true. I may make a mistake and then change everything. So it would be right to get the declaration form,” she insisted. Abraham Muhindi Kasumali, who was also at the home of the LC I chairperson said, “I vote from Kasemire C.O.U and I vote for president Museveni. I am an NRM supporter. We voted Museveni at Kasemire and he got the highest number of votes,” Kasumali said.
Joseph Byaruhanga, the Village secretary who found us at chairman’s home was furious. He also said he voted for Museveni. “I am surprised to see the information that in Kasemire, we don’t vote for Museveni. Who took this information to Kampala? This information that you have brought to us is totally wrong,” he said. Byaruhanga said the Kasese Electoral Commission registrar’s office and headquarters should probe what happened to Museveni’s votes.
This is a paradox that the Electoral Commission hasn’t helped solve. In the middle of organizing 2021 general elections, the Electoral Commission spokesperson, Paul Bukenya, says it’s impossible to go back to records of four year ago.
“It doesn’t mean that we can’t access (declaration forms)”, Bukenya said responding to a request for access to the declaration form of Kasemire C.O.O polling station. The Commission digitized all declaration forms. “I think it is a matter of time we are in, the volumes of request coming in and workload does not allow us to set aside critical work and go back to materials of four years ago.”
Bukenya argues that zero score for a candidate, even Museveni is not something strange. It can happen, he said. If a candidate of Museveni’s repute scores zero at a polling station, he says, and you go back to ask why he scored zero, people may be hesitant to speak out.
The Kasese District Election Commission Registrar, Sulaiman Kato said “it may not be possible now” to get the declaration form from the district. He said all returning officers were in Kampala for training—December 19th 2020—when I phoned him. And he is unsure whether he will return to Kasese. “I may be transferred,” he said.
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Written for URN by Blanshe Musinguzi | Kule Jerome Biswande and Basaijja Iddi contributed to this article.
One other reason for the discrepancy could also owe to doctored results. That is, not only with reference to the polling station in question but also to the larger part of the country. Could it be that the EC system had it’s own predetermined electoral results not necessarily favouring the FDC but, possibly, also the latter’s contender; a prepackaged result all over the country…?Meaning that the actual Declaration Forms never meant or mirrored a thing at the national “Tally Centre.” And so, having it that Museveni got zero at this particular station would be backed up by a reasoning that it is and FDC stronghold…My question would however be, how many other (rather turning point) areas were automicatically alloted to FDC’s opponent/rival)?
The reason why police raided the FDC office and took away all DR forms could be to dismantle evidence of doctored results. Participants in this election should take this investigation very seriously. We are likely to see the same in coming election.
It is what it is. Amama Mbabazi’s camp made claims about elections being rigged. His lawyers were allowed in to cross check and found nothing to substantiate their claims. If people say they voted, then maybe they did, it’s that simple! Opposition rigs. Who said they were saints?
The reason why police raided the FDC office and took away all DR forms could be to dismantle evidence of doctored results. Participants in this election should take this investigation very seriously. We are likely to see the same in coming election.
That simply goes to show that the opposition rigs results, they aren’t saints you know! People tend not to lie about whom the votes for in this day and age.
Now, if Mr Museveni can be rigged out, how about his challengers who have no power whatsover to direct the electoral commission? I think this shows what all Ugandans have for so long suspected, that the electoral results read out by the EC are concocted. Before even the voting starts, the EC computers are preloaded with results giving Museveni the win. There can be no other justification for your findings in this story. And please stop all the illusions of a rig by the opposition; this is not possible. Where in the world of dictatorships can an opposition rig? How? Does the opposition have the guns and other powers to direct the electoral officials to rig in it’s favour? Not possible. It’s only the state, the dictators who have the machinery to rig.