Vote rigging and violence in primary elections sets worrying trend in Uganda

Alleged malpractice in Katine's primaries last week mirrored a national trend in elections across Uganda – a pattern that many Ugandans fear could spill over into next year's general elections

Many local residents have been left wondering what the future holds following suspected irregularities in last week's primary elections in Katine, north-west Uganda, where the Guardian is supporting a community development project. Various positions were being filled on the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party ticket ahead of next year's general elections.

Defeated candidates are warning the country could be heading for trouble in the 2011 elections if the issue of election malpractice is not met head-on.

"This is not an election. This is forced results. If this is what our party primaries can be, then we have every reason to sensitise our people to reject such conduct in [the] next general elections," said Jessica leya Amigo, who failed to be elected the NRM's woman MP candidate for Soroti.

In fact, election malpractices across all parties nationwide have been widely reported in Uganda's national press. Alleged incidents include attempts to stuff ballot boxes with thousands of pre-ticked votes and ballot papers going missing. Violence - sometimes life-threatening - broke out between rival groups of supporters in various parts of the country and has led to accusations of gross incompetence being levelled at party leaders by members of their own parties.

The NRM electoral commission has been accused of delivering voting materials late, distributing voters' registers with missing names, swapping voters' registers belonging to different constituencies and failure to prevent vote rigging. Many people are now questioning if next February's general elections can be free and fair and, worse still, if there is potential for a repeat of events in Kenya in 2007-8 when hundreds died in violent clashes after disputed presidential elections.

Tension build-up

In Soroti district, which includes Katine sub-county, tensions built up last Wednesday as NRM district officials battled to salvage the party's tainted reputation under fire from six losing candidates for the NRM's woman MP (Soroti district) slot.

The six - Lucy Elasu Abullo, Irau Suzan, Rachael Adyango, Leya Amigo, Rose Agayo and Elizabeth Adecho - are challenging the results, claiming the winner, Juliet Iseet Fede, won unfairly. Backed by their supporters, all six thronged the party offices where they claim vote 'rigging' took place and demanded a recount or, better still, that the results be nullified.

Iseet was declared the winner with 6,227 votes, but her rivals say officials could have been bribed to alter the results. "I was in the lead in most sub-counties with big margins, but suddenly someone (Iseet) leads even when she was trailing poorly in most polling stations. Which miracle is this?" said Amigo.

According to the returning officer for Soroti district, Richard Esegu, Abullo came second with 5,891 votes, Adyango third (5,776), Amigo fourth (4,285), Irau fifth (3,441) and Agayo last (3,094).

Whereas the losers admit that Iseet was popular in the municipality, they said she was weak in most of the sub-counties, including Katine, and could not therefore win the elections. For instance, in Gweri sub-county she was counted as polling 72 actual votes, but when the sealed ballot box reached the returning officer the accompanying declaration form stated it was 900 votes. The difference of 828 was baffling, said Adyango.

In another polling station in the same sub-county, he said Iseet got 161 votes - the initial figure is recorded by the candidate's agents and is usually accurate - but oin the final declaration form the first figure had been changed to 761 votes.

Ben Patrick Ejoku, registrar for Asuret sub-county - one of the sub-counties where the result was being queried - said he was deeply shocked to realise that Iseet had polled 900 votes when her performance had been poor in most polling stations in his area. "I totally disagree with those results," he said.

Iseet did not answer a call by district NRM officials to meet them at the NRM offices. As tension mounted, police quickly cordoned off the area in anticipation of more trouble. Only agents for the candidates, journalists, and top NRM officials were allowed in. Supporters could be heard vowing to tear the returning officer into pieces, accusing him of handing victory to the opposition. Among many NRM supporters, Iseet is seen as a weak candidate who will not be able defeat the Forum for Democratic Change's official candidate, Angeline Osege, at the general election.

Call to nullify results

For nearly seven hours, election officials and the candidates's agents struggled in vain to sort out anomalies between the results on the declaration forms and those originally recorded at each polling station.

While candidates called for the results to be nullified, Ben Etonu, the Soroti resident district commissioner, demanded that the returning officer, Richard Esegu, be arrested and interrogated about allegations of vote alteration. He also accused the NRM district chairman, Charles Elasu, for not notifying him about the situation.

"You people, how you could allow this to happen. You know this is an area (Soroti) where the opposition is strong. This is bad for the party. It is going to damage our image," Etonu lamented. "We need to sort this out as soon as possible."

But Elasu denied any part in malpractice, saying that election issues are handled by the electoral commission, not him. "I have [had] no hand in this [rigging]," he said.

After a five-minute exchange, the duo then proposed a recount but the regional police commander, Alison Agaba, objected, saying the electoral commission was the only body able to order the recount or not. She said the results would remain in police custody till the NRM's electoral commission decided.

Today the Guardian spoke to Iseet, who also refuted the allegations against her, describing them as baseless. "The allegations are not true," she said. "I'm not guilty of any malpractice. My conscience is clear; I did not bribe anyone as some of my opponents think. They claim that I paid the NRM district returning officer Ushs 10m but let them prove [it]." She added that she is eagerly awaiting a petition in court to prove her innocence.

"They even had more agents than I had, but I beat them. The problem with my colleagues is that they don't want to accept defeat because they think they are more NRM than some of us. Being a party member for several years does not guarantee your winning."