Over 1200 duplicate names have been found on the Kasese voters’ register as the district prepares to elect a new woman Member of Parliament this week.
Electoral Commission chairperson Badru Kiggundu says the 1229 duplicates were found to have registered twice in the update of the voters’ register for the upcoming parliamentary by-election.
Speaking at a press conference at the commission offices in Kampala on Monday, Kiggundu confirmed that they had noticed the strange appearances of same faces in the voters register during the scrutinizing of the updated voters register.
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Kiggundu further adds that the voters who have been discovered as duplicates are to be deleted from the point of first registration and retained at the point of second registration.
He says that he shall carry the names of the duplicates to the constituency and in case of complaints from them over deletion; they will be arrested for the violation of the voting rules.
Just two days to the voting day on August 8, the ruling NRM party officials in the area have been cited in voter bribery.
Christopher Kibazanga, the chief mobiliser of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party in Kasese, alleges that two billion shillings has been brought to the district especially in Kasese Municipality, to bribe voters today and on the eve of the elections. Voting is slated for August 8th, with FDC’s Winfred Kiiza and Rehema Muhindo of the NRM as front runners.
On Monday morning, a Uganda Radio Network reporter saw unidentified members of the NRM party giving out money at Sandton Hotel in Kasese town.
The men who were dressed in yellow t-shirts and caps were giving out money in the denominations of 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 shillings. It was being given to women, youths and some boda boda cyclists.
At some point the members had to stop giving out the money as some NRM party supporters became rowdy, demanding for more money. There were more than seventy people in the room.
When the URN reporter gained access to the room pretending to be an NRM supporter in Kasese town, he was told to line up and receive the money.
However when one of the officials realized he was a journalist, the reporter was chased out of the room, with some officials threatening to arrest him.
When contacted, Kaluma Matovu, the NRM party Vice Chairman in Kasese district denied that the party was bribing voters. According to Matovu, the party was giving money for lunch and transport to its agents who will be deployed at the polling stations on polling day.
He says that there is no need to bribe voters and yet the party is sure of winning the elections.
But URN spoke to Bernard Kagenda, a boda boda cyclist who was given money. Kagenda, who isn’t a polling agent, said that he received a telephone call last night from an NRM party official, who told him to go to Sandton hotel with seven people from Kasese town.
Aidah Akello, the head of Electoral Offenses desk at Kasese Central Police station, said she wasn’t aware of the voter bribery allegations but promised to investigate the matter.
