The republic of uganda in the supreme court of uganda at kampala

(a) a list of the Polling Stations in each constituency at least fourteen days before nomination; and

(b) A list of the candidates nominated in alphabetical order with surnames first.

(2) The Commission shall forward each list referred to in subsection (1) to all returning officers; and the returning officers shall ensure that the lists relevant to each constituency are published widely in that constituency.”

It was contended for the 2nd Respondent that the list of 11th March one-day before the polling day, did not contain new Polling Stations, but split ones. But according to the evidence of Mr. Mukasa David Bulonge the Head of the Election Monitoring Desk of the National Task Force of the Petitioner, that list contained 1176 new Polling Stations while 303 were missing although originally appearing in the previous gazettes. Examples of new stations were given in Makindye Division East, Soroti Municipality and Nakawa Division in Kampala.

In his supplementary affidavit in reply, Mr. Kasujja admits that some Polling Stations which had been gazetted were deleted from the list published on March 2001 but he explains that this was due to movement of people and the need to create voter convenience. He explains that such was the case in Kotido and Kapchorwa Districts, and also in Kkome Island sub-county in Mukono District. Mr. Kasujja’s explanation about giving separate code number to so-called split Polling Stations was merely for administrative convenience.

The issue is whether the 2nd Respondent published a list of the Polling Stations for each constituency at least fourteen days before nomination of candidates. It is common ground that nomination of candidates was conducted on 8th and 9th January 2001. It is also not in dispute that the list of Polling Stations was published in the Uganda Gazettes of 22nd December 2000, 19th February and 9th March 2001. It is also admitted that the 2nd Respondent supplied the Petitioner with a list of gazetted Polling Stations on 11th March. It is clear that only the publication of the list 22nd December 2000 was within the prescribed period. The lists of February 19th and March 9th and 11th were outside the prescribed period.

The evidence on record shows that in Makindye Division East the list of 11th March 2001 indicated 29 more additional Polling Stations than the list published in the Gazette of 22nd December 2000. The number of Polling Stations in all the 7 (seven) parishes was increased by varying numbers and there is no evidence to show that the split or additional Polling Stations were part of other Polling Stations.

In Soroti Municipality there were originally two Polling Stations as per gazette of 22nd December 2000, but in the list of 11th March 2001, there were four Polling Stations with separate codes. In Kinambogo Parish Buyende sub-county in Kamuli District, the original number of Polling Stations was four but on 11th March the number was increased to five. In Nakawa Division, Mbuya I Parish, the number of Polling Stations was increased from 8 to 10.

After carefully evaluating the evidence on this matter of additional Polling Stations I find that the split stations were in fact new Polling Stations with different codes. It is not necessary to establish the number of additional Polling Stations but the Petitioner’s evidence which was not challenged put the number at 1176. The publication of these additional Polling Stations on 11th March 2001 was grossly out of time.

I must therefore find that the 2nd Respondent did not comply with the provisions of Section 28 of the Act when it failed to publish in the Gazette 14 days prior to the nomination of candidates’ a complete list of Polling Stations that were used in the Presidential Election.