EC 'gifted' Katumba with Bobi Wine's votes at 7 polling stations

A section of voters has expressed shock and awe upon learning that hundreds of votes were irregularly 'gifted' to independent presidential candidate John Katumba in the recently concluded general election by the Electoral Commission. 

 

Katumba polled more than 100 votes from about seven polling stations across the country, according to the official tally released by the EC. The electoral body together with the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni who was announced the winner by the EC and the attorney general have been dragged to court by National Unity Platform presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine over alleged election malpractices and irregularities.

 

The EC chairperson justice Simon Byabakama announced Museveni as the winner of the January 14 presidential polls having garnered 58 per cent of the total votes cast followed by Kyagulanyi at 35 per cent. 

Katumba, popularly known as Katumba Oyee, rarely polled above five votes at nearly all polling stations across the country ended up registering the highest number of votes more than any other candidate at over 7 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 here.

But when our reporter revisited the polling station, the revelation threw whoever heard about it into bouts of laughter wondering where Katumba got such votes from.

“Are you talking about Katumba Oyee?"

 

"That is not possible!" another resident exclaimed.

Although some residents could not remember the exact figures scored by different candidates, they were pretty sure that Kyagulanyi 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.

"What I remember is that it was Kyagulanyi who won at every polling station. There is no polling station which was won by Katumba John. I would move from one polling station to another," said Ndyamuhaki. 

More people interviewed in the area carried similar views but none had recorded the actual number of votes per candidate. After a long search, URN traced the NUP 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 the votes that appear in the EC tally against Katumba’s name, belonged to Kyagulanyi. Museveni’s votes were rightly 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.

"Bobi Wine Robert Kyagulanyi got 333, Yoweri got 61, Nobert Mao got 1, Katumba zero and others zero. It is not true it is vice versa, it is Robert Kyagulanyi who got 333. The Electoral Commission has to do things right. [Byabakama] has to correct things and give Bobi Wine the votes he got than giving him zero yet he got 333," said Nakalanzi. 

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 acting 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 EC 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. 

"The number of voters on that polling station they are 955, the number of votes cast on that day were 373. Kyagulanyi won at the polling station with 200 votes, Yoweri Kaguta Tibahaburwa Museveni got 148, Amuriat got 11 votes, Nancy Kalembe got 2, Katumba 2, Mao I think got 2 if not 1, others got zero, zero. My surprise is that the results from the Electoral Commission are saying that Henry Tumukunde Kakurugu got 371. It is very unfortunate, it is unacceptable because I was there," said Bwambale.   

Similarly, agents for several presidential candidates at Kawafu Namagembe's Place (NAM-Z) refuted the data presented by the Electoral Commission. 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 another independent candidate, pastor Fred Mwesigye who was given 85 votes and Museveni two votes.