On the campaign trail, presidential candidates have loudly bared their fear of vote rigging. The opposition and the ruling NRM have accused the other of planning to steal the February 18 election.
In this special report SULAIMAN KAKAIRE looks at how an election is stolen and how each camp plans not to let that happen.
From independent research conducted by The Observer, through interviews with people familiar with the electoral processes and scrutiny of court decisions on election rigging, we found that election rigging in most cases is preordained and takes place at every stage of the electoral process.
Godber Tumushabe, an associate director of the Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies (Gliss), said election rigging happens in the processes, during voting and at the declaration of results.
“At any of those stages there is rigging. If someone is stopped at a particular stage they get their way at another stage or at the declaration of results,” he noted.
APPOINTMENT OF ELECTORAL OFFICIALS
Tumushabe, who recently trained a group of opposition members how to guard against election rigging, said the manipulation is conceived at the EC, display of voters’ register and printing of ballot papers.
“If a candidate influences the appointment of EC officials then they abet and aid the rigging that happens at voting or at declaration of results,” he said.
Appointment of electoral officials is achieved through influencing the appointment of the EC first, district returning officials and presiding officials. Under the EC Act, the commission oversees all the electoral process; the district returning officer declares the results of an electoral process in a district; while a presiding officer supervises the voting processes at a polling station.
“For the incumbent, these officers look at him as their employer,” Tumushabe added.
A case in point is Abdu Katuntu versus EC and Kirunda Kivejinja, where the petitioner successfully challenged the 2006 parliamentary elections in Bugweri county.
Electoral officials were put on the spot for aiding election rigging. The presiding officer of Idudi market polling station was accused of adopting a roll call method instead of queuing by voters as is required.
“The presiding officer used a roll call system calling out those voters he chose to call and that, as a result of that unlawful voting procedure, by 2.30 p.m. only 200 voters had cast their votes at that polling station which had some 1323 registered voters,” Katuntu argued in the petition, adding that after reporting the unlawful procedure to the electoral commission, the returning officer intervened but only demoted the presiding officer to a polling assistant and the roll call system continued.
Justice Vincent Musoke-Kibuuka concluded that the selective roll call by the returning officer was most probably one of the disabling factors to disenfranchise Katuntu’s supporters.
VOTERS REGISTER
Tumushabe said in most cases a candidate, who is a potential victim will not have capacity to influence the appointment of electoral officers, in such circumstances they should be vigilant in following the electoral processes.
“For instance, any serious politicians should be careful to see that there is a credible voters’ register. You have to know that whoever appears on the register is eligible to vote,” he said.
Under section 25 of the EC Act, it is provided that before any election is held, “the EC shall by notice in the gazette appoint a period of not less than 21 days, during which a copy of the voters roll for each parish or ward shall be displayed for public scrutiny.”
This provision enables candidates to detect anomalies. In 2001 and 2006, presidential election petitions, the Supreme court reprimanded the EC for violating section 25.
In the 2001 case, Dr Kizza Besigye had petitioned court to rule on whether failure by EC to carry out the display as required by the law did not amount to violation of the electoral law.
Then Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki ruled that; “In the present case, it [EC] admitted that the display was carried out for only five days…Odoki added that; “Failure to display [the register] for the prescribed minimum period undermined those two principles and was responsible for complaints relating to voting.
Similar findings were made in 2006. In the Besigye petition of 2006, court found that 150, 000 voters were disenfranchised due to mismanagement of the register.
RIGGING AT VOTING TIME
According to Tumushabe, rigging on polling day is the most common and most people are familiar with it. “Rigging on voting day may happen with kidnap of polling agents of a particular candidate, ballot stuffing and allowing people who are not eligible to vote,” he said.
He added that, for instance, during the 2011 presidential and parliamentary race in Ruhama county in Ntungamo, veteran politician Augustine Ruzindana did not have agents at polling stations after they were kidnapped.
Sulaiman Magumba, the FDC chairperson in Iganga district, said rigging can also happen when new polling stations are created and when a candidate’s agent is manipulated.
“For instance, they can pretend that we need to photocopy some documents and within that period they can stuff the ballots, they can also make that person suffer a running stomach so that he/she can give them space to rig,” he said.
DECLARATION OF RESULTS
Rigging can also happen at the declaration of results. For instance, Tumushabe said this can happen when a candidate’s agent is led into signing a declaration form that contains results, which do not correspond with the voting outcome.
“They can even get recounts to change things like what happened in Moses Kasibante’s case against Katongole Singh, where the magistrate illegally presided over a vote recount,” Tumushabe said.
Former coordinator of Intelligence Services Gen David Sejusa, who is currently under detention, has publicly said that he was part of a team that changed the 2006 presidential results in favour of President Museveni.
BESIGYE AND MBABAZI’S PLANS
With only nine days to polling day, both opposition and NRM have made preparations to safeguard their vote. For instance, John Patrick Amama Mbabazi has set up teams from village to national level.
Sadam Gayira, the deputy spokesperson for Mbabazi’s campaign taskforce confirmed that the structures. “What we are left with is liaising with our colleagues of FDC to agree on particular things,” he said.
According to Gayira, the Mbabazi camp has got information that NRM intends to use about two million crime preventers, who will wear Go Forward and FDC T-shirts and carry forms to present themselves as Mbabazi’s agents on voting day.
“We warn the crime prevents to avoid assuming the risk. They are putting their life at risk. We know them some will be used as polling officers,” he said.
On his part, FDC’s Dr Kizza Besigye has informed his supporters that he has set up a team called Power 10 that will be charged with the role of guarding against vote rigging.
MUSEVENI WARNS
In a recent article published by The New Vision, Museveni wrote that he had learnt of schemes orchestrated by the opposition to rig.
“Through intelligence and crime detection, I hear of desperate schemes from the opposition. Some of the schemes are stated below. Some elements will use computers to disorganize the voters’ register; they will use the computers to change the results at the stage of transmission; they will bribe the election officials to rig for them.”
Museveni said, adding that such schemes will be defeated. On its part, the EC has acquired biometric equipment for voter identification and verification to be used during the 2016 general election. The equipment is intended to ensure that there is no cheating in the elections, particularly through multiple voting.
As we head to the election, David Pulkol, a former head of External Security Organisation, said that vote rigging can only be done by the ruling party through the EC and police.
“Ideally, it is the police and EC that should fight election rigging but in the instant case they are all partisan. How can opposition stop ballot stuffing and announcing of false results? A state is a state,” he said.
