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.
The Masaka Chief
magistrate’s court has permitted an application filed by the Kalungu East
Member of Parliament, Vincent Ssempija for a vote recount on grounds that the
vote counting and tallying exercise were marred by irregularities. Ssempijja,
who doubles as the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, ran to the
magistrate’s court for a vote recount after losing the just concluded
parliamentary elections.
He sued the Kalungu
District Returning Officer, Ann Namatovu and the National Unity Platform-NUP
candidate, Francis Katabazi Katongole and the Electoral Commission for robbing
him of his victory. On Monday, Masaka Chief Magistrate Charles Yeteise heard
that the vote tallying exercise was filled with gross irregularities since
Ssempijja's polling agents were ejected from the polling stations before
the tallying exercise was conducted, which raised suspicion that the exercise was
not free and fair.
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. He asked
court to grant his prayers for a vote recount to ascertain the exact number of
votes he lost through this process because there was no sufficient display of
ballots during the tallying exercise.
“In several
polling stations in the constituency many of the results declaration forms were
not signed, which justifies why the recount should be granted to end this doubt,”
Kandebe told the magistrate. In his submission the Electoral Commission lawyer,
Eric Ssbiti told the court that the election exercise was free, fair and peaceful;
saying the agents of all the candidates including those of the petitioner
signed the declaration forms without hesitation.
“We don’t
have anything to hide from the court and public and if court orders for a
recount we shall accept and deliver materials to the court because the polling
material and boxes holding DR forms are in good custody,” he said.
Katabazi’s
lawyers, led by Chrysostome Katumba told the court that the allegations by Ssempijjas
lawyers that his agents did not sign the DR forms is false since the forms
on-court record are clearly signed and no complaint was raised during the counting
or tallying exercise on the polling day.
He said
bringing up the matter now isn’t right since the court cannot have enough time to
ascertain the claim. Katumba also argued that grounds brought by the applicants
are farfetched to warrant a vote recount and asked the court to throw out the
application. In his ruling, Yeteise noted that court was convinced
with the grounds raised by the applicants for a vote recount.
“I have considered submissions from all
parties and court finds it fit to grant a vote recount on grounds that
Ssempijja’s agents were chased from the polling stations and vote tallying was
conducted in absence of his agents, which brings the confusion that can be resolved
by a recount,” he said.
Yeteise
ordered the returning officer to allow two agents of each candidate and ensure
transparency during the loading and offloading of the materials from the
contested polling stations to Masaka court tomorrow for the vote recount. Ssempijja
has welcomed the ruling, saying many of his ballot papers were given to Katabazi
during the tallying exercise since his agents were chased from the polling station.
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out:....Prayed to court,”//
Katabazi accused Ssempijja of conniving with the Electoral Commission and court
to rob him of his victory says he is considering filing an appeal.
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It’s a big shame to Uganda,”//
Katabazi polled 12198 votes against 10,865 votes garnered by Ssempijja. Lule
Mayiya came third with 6,427 votes while Didas Mugooma trailed the pack with
2304 votes.