In all the five tents of Rubaga, Kampala Central, Makindye, Nakawa and Kawempe are occupied to capacity, with more than 800 people, while hundreds are standing outside waiting for the declaration of winners. Hundreds of others are stranded at the gate.
According to Abas Namara, the Rukungiri district returning Officer, the ballot papers were exchanged with those from Fort portal, necessitating the suspension of the exercise for those specific positions until further notice.
At Ayul A South Tecwa polling station in Pager Division, a total of 120 people had cast their votes by 11 a.m. out of the 559 registered voters at the polling station. Vicky Adyero, the presiding officer at the polling station also reiterated that the numbers are higher than what they registered last week.
Dirlisa Kataryeba, an election monitor for the opposition Forum for Democratic-FDC party, said that by the time rain started, people were still in lines and left immediately it started. Kataryeba says although the voter turnout was low, the voting process went on well.
More than 60 agencies, commissions or authorities were to be disbanded, merged with others or returned to ministries as departments. Now Public Service Minister Wilson Muruli Mukasa says the process requires amendments in legislation. “Most of these agencies are created by acts of parliament and you cannot just abolish them,” he says.
Kyenjojo District Police Commander – DPC, Julius Banganza, says several people engaged in electoral violence on Sunday and this morning leading to their arrest.
Upon examination of the voter’s register, police discovered and polling agents of several opposition candidates discovered a mismatch between the voting data recorded by the Biometric machines and that on the voter’s registrar.
Ssempijja through his lawyers led by Geoffrey Kandebe told the court that the same thing happened at about 25 polling stations, which gave a chance to Katabazi’s polling agents and officials to mismatch the votes and hence robbed him of his victory.
A few minutes to 1 p.m., incumbent Kawempe Division Mayor Emmanuel Serunjogi turned up to cast his vote at Yiga’s park yard Bwaise II polling station amidst chants by his supporters.
Although voting was meant to start at 7:00 am, voting started late at most polling stations because of delayed delivery of voting materials and the rains. In some places, like Bukoto, Ntinda and parts of Naguru voting had not yet started when the rains began.
The two stations are Moneko and Kololo-Luseeta all in Kawolo division. Presiding officers for Moneko Henry Kafuko and Sula Muganga for Kololo have been arrested with three boxes each full of pre-ticked ballot papers.
In Kimanya-Kabonera and Nyendo-Mukungwe divisions of the newly created Masaka City, candidates and their agents are still traversing communities urging people to vote for them.
Ampeire later told our reporter that the agents were found bribing voters to vote for Muhanguzi, which is criminal. The suspects were reportedly found bribing voters with between 1000 and 2000 Shillings to vote for their candidate.
Although voting opened across the two divisions in Soroti, there were no ballot papers for all the 25 wards in the city, causing anxiety among voters and candidates who wanted the entire exercise to be called off. But after consultations, the election was reopened for only the Division Mayors and Women representatives.
"These NUP and FDC agents were campaigning at the polling station and calling voters promising to give them money if they come and vote. We had no option but to call security officers who came on time and arrested them," said David Byakatonda, the polling agent of Mamerito.
Muguma Rolland Kaginda, a voter at Rukungiri town p/s polling station attributed the low voter turn up to electoral commission for failing to do civil education about the value of voting
Yasin Ssekamatte, a Kampala based political Analyst says that such political waves are a reflection of frustration by those yearning for change, even when that change cannot bring eloquent leaders on board.
Balikuddembe asks Justice Byabakama to reprimand Mutamba together with her juniors for presiding over outright irregularities that manifested in the local government polls.
James Wire, a technology and business consultant, says the focus has been mainly put on large organisations especially banks, yet multitudes of small enterprises, which are termed “the backbone of the economy”, have lost lots of business.
Mark Muganzi Mayanja the Mukono Returning Officer notes that deliveries had started but since they operate in open space, it would not make any sense to deliver them under heavy rains.
