KAMPALA – The Electoral Commission (EC) has confirmed that they have evidence of pre-ticked ballots from the Hoima District Woman MP by-election.
The EC spokesman, Mr Jotham Taremwa, said some suspects were arrested over the matter and they will soon be taken to court.
“The Electoral Commission has pre-ticked ballots from the Hoima by-election but we are yet to analyse them. Some suspects are already in custody in Hoima. We’re going to treat these ballots as a sample test. If you need any information, ask police because they’re the security managers,” he said in an interview on NBS TV on Monday, September 29.
Nevertheless, Mr Taremwa said the election was free and fair.
“The general assessment of Hoima is that it was a successful election. People will always make attempts to foil systems. Voter turnout for by-elections is always low and it was the same for Kaabong. Voting is voluntary. The Kaabong by-election was free and fair,” he added.
The EC remarks come after the opposition, including People Power movement leader Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine and FDC party president Patrick Amuriat Oboi rejected the poll results, insisting that NRM rigged the election and that the military intimidated voters with heavy deployment.
While appearing on NBS TV on morning, Mr Amuriat insisted that the election was held in violence.
“President Museveni will be embarrassed when we get the real audit of the Hoima election. The People’s government is now causing NRM trouble. They speak about it and recognise us. You’re going to feel the pressure of the joint opposition. How can you talk about a free and fair election when pre-ticked ballots were intercepted? The credibility of this election is highly questionable. It’s a shame for NRM to chest thump when everything went wrong. It’s too early for them to celebrate. The 28,789 votes allocated to us should send a shock wave to NRM that the people of this country are ready to stand up to a dictatorship that has systematically put them down,” he said.
In response, government spokesman Ofwono Opondo accused the opposition of spreading lies to cover up their loss.
“Apart from politics, the opposition injects blatant lies, intimidation and violence. It appears that these three are the main tools of the opposition and I hope the public sees them for who they are. When we have a deployment to curtail the lies, they run to the media. I want to thank the Hoima locals and police for standing firm,” he said.
