The ongoing vote recount in the disputed Masaka City Woman Member of Parliament election has unearthed gross mismatches between the number of ballot papers delivered and the ballots cast for candidates.
On Friday evening, Masaka Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe commenced the implementation of a vote recount order arising from an application filed by Justine Nameere, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate, who is contesting the victory of her National Unity Platform (NUP) competitor, Rose Nalubowa.
The Magistrate directed that ballots from all the 314 polling stations in Masaka City be recounted to ascertain the number of votes scored by each candidate and resolve the dispute.However, the recount is unearthing glaring variations between the number of ballot papers recovered from polling stations and the figures captured on both the Declaration of Results forms and the Electoral Commission tally sheet.
Although Nameere had indicated in her application that the Returning Officer variously reduced her votes or completely omitted them, the recount suggests that at some polling stations she was allocated more votes on the tally sheet than what is actually recovered from the ballot boxes.
For instance, at Kimwanyi P.7 polling station in Kiteredde Ward, Kimanya–Kabonera Division, the tally sheet indicates that out of the 287 registered voters, 97 voted for Nameere while Nalubowa scored 62 votes.
Other candidates, Juliet Kakande Nakabuye of the Democratic Front (DF) and independent candidate Sauyah Nanyonga, were each allocated 13 votes.However, upon opening the ballot box, court discovered only 49 ballots, all ticked in favour of Nameere.
In the same ballot box, court recovered four-and-a-half ballot books used in voting for the directly elected Member of Parliament for Kimanya–Kabonera Division, but their results were not tallied.Upon noticing the inconsistency, the Chief Magistrate resolved to disregard results from the affected polling station.
Similarly, at Binyonyi A (NAMBU-Z) polling station in Nyendo Ward, Nyendo–Mukungwe Division, the tally sheet allocates 339 votes to Nameere, yet upon opening the ballot box, only 41 votes were recovered. Nalubowa was allocated 30 votes on the tally sheet, while 31 votes were recovered from the ballot box.
At Market Triangle (Open Space) polling station, the tally sheet indicates that Nameere scored 200 votes out of the 500 registered voters, but the ballot box contained only 21 votes ticked in her favour. The tally sheet gave Nalubowa 50 votes, while the ballot box contained 58 votes.
Juliet Kakande Nakabuye of the Democratic Front was allocated 20 votes on the tally sheet, yet only nine votes were found in the ballot box. Independent candidate Sauyah Nanyonga was allocated 10 votes on the tally sheet, while only six votes were recovered from the box.
Other mismatches were also reflected at polling stations where Nameere’s votes were reduced, as she had claimed.At Block B A polling station in Nyendo Ward, Nyendo–Mukungwe Division, Nameere was allocated 39 votes on the tally sheet, while the ballot box contained 188 votes.
Nalubowa had 123 votes on the tally sheet, but only 50 votes were recovered from the ballot box. Juliet Kakande Nakabuye (DF) and independent candidate Sauyah Nanyonga were allocated 19 and 14 votes respectively, figures which matched what was recovered from the ballot box.
At Kitenga Primary School polling station in Nyendo–Mukungwe Division, Nalubowa had 118 votes on the tally sheet, while the opened ballot box contained 119 votes. Nameere had 49 votes on the tally sheet, a figure that was confirmed in the ballot box. Independent candidate Sauyah Nanyonga had 17 votes on the tally sheet, while the ballot box contained 19 votes.
Juliet Kakande Nakabuye had 14 votes in both instances.At Sserinya Primary School (Kabagabo) polling station in Bulando Ward, Nyendo–Mukungwe Division, despite all candidates having results on the tally sheet, the ballot box was found empty.In the last 24 hours, court examined 104 ballot boxes out of a total of 313, representing 33.2 percent of the work completed.
In total, court will re-examine 59,499 ballot papers cast in the Masaka City Woman MP election conducted on January 15.Meanwhile, the recount is being conducted in the absence of the declared winner, Rose Nalubowa, who walked away on Friday in protest after the Chief Magistrate resolved to proceed with the exercise despite finding one of the ballot boxes with an already broken seal inside the store.
