Africa-Press – Uganda. Wakiso District parliamentary candidates on Saturday morning accused Electoral Commission (EC) officials of doctoring their results.
Machines at the district tally centre jammed at the time of compiling the presidential and parliamentary results.
Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, who was the first to be declared winner at the district tally centre, said the numbers on the declaration forms did not match those obtained from the polling centres.
“The declaration form from the field that was seen and checked by the returning officer indicated a total of 42,626 votes. But when the results were put in a tally machine for further computation, it printed the declaration form with a total of 27,000 votes,” Mr Ssemujju said. “This is a common practise among returning officers because they normally have interests in some candidates.”
Mr Wakayima Musoke, the newly elected Member of Parliament for Nansana Municipality, said his votes had also been deducted by the machine.He said the declaration form from his agents indicated a total of 66,692 votes, and was even verified by the returning officer.
“When I was declared winner and given the Electoral Commission declaration form, I found out that the form had a different figure, 32,946 votes. That’s a big margin that can create chance for the runner up to go to court and claim it,” Mr Musoke said.
Ms Betty Naluyima, the elected Woman Member of Parliament for Wakiso District, told Sunday Monitor that her votes had also been tempered with.
“The declaration form from my agents, which was seen and verified by the returning officer, indicated a total of 333,573 votes. But when the results were put in the tally machine for further computing, it printed a declaration form with 65,049 votes,” Ms Naluyima said.
Mr Tolbert Musinguzi, the Wakiso District returning officer, confirmed to Sunday Monitor that their machine got a technical problem.
“The problem came from the system because there was a live transmission of presidential election results to the national tally centre. That’s why the system printed wrong results, but we are trying to work with the affected political candidates to solve the matter,” he said.
By press time, the affected candidates were still at the district tally centre waiting for their results to be rectified.
