Voter registers in Lango have 7,000 ghosts
By Timothy Nsubuga – 30th Aug-5th Sept
The voters’ registers displayed by the beleaguered Kiggundu-led Electoral Commission in two Lango constituencies have over 7,000 “ghosts”; Uganda Correspondent can reveal. The 7,000 “ghost voters” were unearthed by an investigation carried out by Uganda Correspondent in Erute South and Otuke district alone.
In Otuke for example, our investigation, launched after the EC displayed the national voters register for public inspection, established that several bogus military detaches of approximately 30 to 40 soldiers had been set up by the crooks involved in this 2011 election rigging racket. The thugs then declared these detaches to the Electoral Commission as full Battalions.
But here is the most interesting bit. A standard Ugandan army Battalion contains anywhere between 300-1,300 soldiers. That effectively means that that is the mind blowing number of “ghost voters” that the election thugs would have at their disposal in every “ghost Battalion”.
By some strange coincidence, on the 25th of August when Uganda Correspondent received the final report into its investigations in Lango, Kampala Central MP and Shadow Attorney General Elias Lukwago petitioned the High Court of Uganda protesting the establishment of exclusive polling stations for the army, intelligence and other security personnel. Lukwago said such polling stations have been used in the past as rigging centres by Museveni’s NRM party.
“…I am aware that the Presidential Elections Act and Parliamentary Elections Act which came into force on June 25 2010 and the EC Act clearly prohibited the undemocratic practice of establishing polling stations for the army, intelligence and other security personnel”; Mr Lukwago said.
Besides the scam involving exclusive polling stations for security personnel, Uganda Correspondent’s interviews with local residents in Erute South and parts of Otuke district also revealed that that the displayed voters’ registers still had names of at least 1,023 people who had died in the last few years.
Mr. Samuel Omara Alele, a 37yr old local primary school teacher from Otuke, summed it all up in a chat with Uganda Correspondent. “…I don’t understand this whole thing. Who is going to vote for the 20 dead people from my village whose names are still on this register”; he asked.
The overwhelming majority of the 7,000 “ghost voters” uncovered by our investigation however were attributed to the overzealous activities of one famous Lango NRM supporter. All we can safely say for now is that he is also a businessman who has previously been linked to dubious mineral deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This NRM chap allegedly ferried thousands of people from Lira district and got them registered as voters in Erute South and Otuke.
Members of the public have also in the last few days discovered hundreds of ghost names on voters’ registers across the country. The EC, however, strangely defended the existence of “ghosts” on the register by arguing that they had deliberated planted the ghost names on the register as a way of testing if people were vigilant enough to spot them. Fair enough!
But the pressing questions on the lips of many Ugandans that Uganda Correspondent talked to on the streets of Kampala about the EC’s excuse are these:
Would the EC display the voters register again for public scrutiny after it has removed the ghosts it deliberately planted in them? If not, then how will the public know that the ghosts have actually been removed from the final voters register that will be used during the 2011 elections?
Next week, Uganda Correspondent will publish details of how Museveni’s ruling NRM-O party has recruited its own cadres and planted them as “Returning Officers” within the EC system. END. If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent. Never miss out again.
