By KT Reporter
Contestants in the National Resistance Movement-NRM primaries for Sembabule district positions are demanding a special audit of the results of the party polls, citing suspicious figures.
Deborah Arayo, the NRM district Election Commission Return Officer, declared the party flag bearers for the district Chairperson and LCV Councillors, after tallying results from the party primary elections conducted on Thursday.
According to the declared results, Patrick Nkalubo, the incumbent district Chairperson, retained the party flag after he obtained 59,661 votes, winning the other four opponents.
Doctor Elli Muhumuza emerged second with 15,357 votes, followed by James Kabuganda with 14,045 votes, Richard Naturinda, who scored 1,501 votes, and Quraish Mutesti coming last with 917 votes.
Arayo has, however, found it hard to declare the results as candidates repeatedly contested the tallies, some of which they argued were suspicious.
For instance, Muhumuza argued results from many polling centres did not correspond with the number of voters on the party registers, something he says points to manipulation of the process.
He expressed concern that in various polling stations, the number of votes counted for L.CV Chairperson flag bearers is way above the votes recorded for Councillors, yet elections were concurrent.
He demands that the party conduct an audit of the results for the purpose of ensuring the integrity of the election process.
Muhumuza accuses the village and sub-county election Registrars of conspiring to alter results, which led to glaring variations in the tallies.
Richard Naturinda, who also contested for the L.CV flag, appealed to Ambassador James Kinone, the NRM Electoral Commissioner in charge of Buganda, to hold the results suspicious and conduct a thorough review of the process.
According to him, many of the declarations of results from Lwemiyaga and Ntuusi sub-counties were faulty because they never indicated scores for all the candidates.
“It’s most likely that the Registrars sat with candidates and filled these forms. While they fidgeted to falsify results, they omitted the names of some candidates,” he said.
Naturinda argued that his team can not trust the results unless the election exercise is audited by the party’s Electoral Commission.
However, Patrick Nkalubo, who was declared the winner of the LCV Chairperson’s flag, dismissed allegations of malpractices, arguing that the complainants failed to deploy agents and many polling centres, who would help them closely witness the election process.
He observes that in some areas, the variation in the number came as a result of poor mobilisation for candidates for councillors who did not match his campaign efforts.
As a remedy, Ambassador James Kinone instructed the Returning officer to defer declaration of results of Councillors for Lwemiyaga sub-county, indicating that they are going to be used as a case study in examining the complaints.
He noted that their simple observation suggests that some declaration of results forms from Lwemiyaga sub-county have similar handwritings, which raises suspicion that the commission needs to study.
He warns that the party’s Electoral Commission will take drastic measures against any returning officer who may be implicated in the malpractices.
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