The Electoral Commission has come under scrutiny over allegations that it issued two sets of Declaration of Results Forms for six polling stations in the Kimanya-Kabonera parliamentary election. The issue emerged before the Masaka High Court during the hearing of an election petition challenging the victory of National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Patrick Kuteesa in the January 15 general election.
The petition was filed by National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Robert Asiimwe, who alleges that votes from six polling stations were omitted from the final tally, denying him victory. The disputed polling stations are Kasango, Kitanga Trading Centre, Kasijjagirwa Playground, Kiziba Trading Centre, Gayaza Primary School and Kitambuza.
Asiimwe claims he led by about 2,000 votes before the results from the six polling stations were allegedly omitted from the final tally. He is asking the court to consider the affected Declaration of Results Forms, overturn Kuteesa’s declaration, and declare him the winner of the election.
However, Kuteesa, through his lawyer Jude Byamukama, has filed an application seeking to have the entire petition dismissed, arguing that it is supported by forged documents and defective affidavits filed by both Asiimwe and the Electoral Commission.
Byamukama told the court that after being served with the petition, they obtained certified copies of the Declaration of Results Forms from the Electoral Commission, which confirmed Kuteesa as the winner. He said they were later surprised to discover that the Electoral Commission had also supplied Asiimwe with another set of certified results forms bearing different results from those contained in the forms earlier obtained by Kuteesa.
Byamukama asked the court to hold the Electoral Commission responsible for what he described as discrepancies in the results forms from the six polling stations. He argued that although the disputed forms bear the Commission’s official certification stamp, the electoral body has subsequently disowned the forms it had earlier issued. According to Byamukama, the circumstances surrounding the different sets of certified forms raise questions about the integrity of the electoral process.
In a separate submission in Luganda, Byamukama further questioned the circumstances under which the disputed forms were presented in the petition.
However, Asuman Ssewaya, representing the Electoral Commission, rejected the application, arguing that it had been filed out of panic and was intended to frustrate the hearing of the main petition.
Ssewaya told the court that the issues raised by Kuteesa are matters that should be considered during the substantive hearing of the election petition rather than through a preliminary application.
He asked the court to dismiss the application. Justice Joyce Kavuma is presiding over the election petition, while the court is expected to deliver its ruling on the application on Wednesday. The ruling will determine whether the preliminary objections raised by Kuteesa will affect the progression of the main petition, in which Asiimwe is seeking to overturn Kuteesa’s victory-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
