Two-time Sembabule parliamentary candidate, Joy Kabatsi, has rejected the results of yesterday's by-elections for District Woman MP.
Kabatsi an independent candidate, who was hoping to take the seat from Hanifa Kawooya of the NRM, stormed out of the tally center where the Electoral Commission counted the votes, complaining of massive vote rigging. She said Kawooya's victory was a farce considering the clear lack of independence of the electoral commission and incidents of violence.
Hanifa Kawooya won yesterday's election by a margin of more than 3,500 votes. The vote reinstates her in the parliamentary seat she lost last year when the High Court nullified her election in 2001 on the evidence of electoral malpractice.
Kabatsi accused soldiers of the Presidential Guard Brigade of attacking her polling agents in Lugusu sub-county where she only got two votes compared to Kawooya's 600. She said the atmosphere of fear and corruption that she claimed was perpetrated by Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kuteesa were forcing her out of politics.
//Cue in: iI leave Sembabule to Sam Kuteesa #i
Cue out: i# going very far.i//
The Democratic Party candidate in the elections, Irene Lwanga Nantongo, also rejected the result of the polls. She claimed to have seen officials of the Electoral Commission at Hotel Rainbow in Sembabule in a secret meeting with Hanifa Kawooya, Sam Kuteesa and police boss Kale Kayihura.
Nantongo called for an overhaul of the Electoral Commission.
Badru Kiggundu, chairperson of the Electoral Commission, dismissed reports of impropriety on his part. He said any claims of malpractice will be investigated.
