The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Several polling stations in Wakiso district on Wednesday reported missing ballot papers from the booklets.
According to Electoral Commission, each ballot booklet must have a total of 50 papers.
However, at some polling stations visited by our reporter, some booklets had 30 to 40 papers raising suspicion on the whereabouts of the other missing ballot papers.
At Sumbwe Primary School (NAK-NANSI) polling station in Busiro East Constituency, agents of opposition candidates were able to spot the anomaly when the first ballot booklet was cleared yet only 40 voters had turned up to vote.
The agents ordered the presiding officer to halt the process so that they make an audit. On recounting, the agents and electoral officials discovered that several booklets had at least twenty or ten ballots missing.
Similar anomalies were recorded at Kisimbiri CoU polling station and St Jude Catholic Church.
The Wakiso district returning officer Tolbert Musinguzi notes that he is not aware of the missing ballot papers.
Moses Tamale, NUP official agent at St Jude says that some booklets were not found in the boxes. Tamale notes that after consulting from the election supervisors, they accepted that voting proceeds but the anomaly was recorded and it was advised to take precaution on the available number of ballot booklets.
Matia Lwanga Bwanika, one the candidates in the Wakiso LCV race notes that his team is still studying and investigating circumstances under which ballot papers went missing.
“We suspect that rigging is going on. There is a likelihood that the papers were plucked out and are being pre-ticked. We have told our agents to be sharp. We foresaw all things and we had trained them on how to stop such incidents,” says Bwanika.
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