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

Complaints Relating to the Tallying of Results:

I shall now deal with the complaints relating to the process of tallying the results. Both the Petitioner and the 2nd Respondent adduced evidence in support or defence of their respective cases.

In his affidavit in support of the Petition, the Petitioner challenges the election results of Mawokota County South and Makindye Division East where he alleges that the number of votes cast was more than the number of the registered voters making the percentage as 105.34% and 109.86% respectively. The full details are indicated in his affidavit. He states that from the two constituencies there were 2,184 + 7,797 = 9,981 votes cast in excess of the registered voters. The Petitioner further states that he has looked at the Declaration of Results Form DR for Bukaade Primary school Polling Centre in Buwologoma Parish, Bukenga Sub-county, Luuka County Constituency in Iganga District and noted that the number of votes cast exceeded the number of ballots issued for the Polling Station. The total votes cast were 856 while the number of votes issued was 650. He attached form DR for Bukaade Primary School Polling Station in annexed hereto as annex R4.

Mr. Aziz Kasujja, Chairman of the 2nd Respondent, in his affidavit in answer to the Petition stated that the results received by the Commission and declared on 14 March 2001 were as shown on the Result Form B and detailed in District Result Sheets annexed hereto as R1 and R2. He stated that Annexture R3 to the Petitioner’s affidavit did not contain authentic results as the proper results are contained in the summary result sheets by district attached to his affidavit as R2.

Kasujja denies that the number of votes cast for Makindye County East were more than the number of registered voters. He explains that what was shown in the table of results attached to the Petitioner’s affidavit was an arithmetical error as explained in annexture R 3 (a) and (b) and was corrected as shown in annexture R 3 (c) (I) and (ii).

R 3 (a) is a letter from Mr. G.T. Mwesigye, Returning Officer, and Kampala, addressed to the Chairman of the 2^nd Respondent. It is headed “Results for Makindye East” and states,

“On 13th March 2001 I dispatched results for Makindye East which were erroneous. This error came out as a result of faulty tallying from the DR Form. This problem was brought to my attention yesterday 19” March by one Leticia of the Commission.
This morning we revisited the DR Forms and found that our original tallying
was faulty and gave a picture of more voters than those registered in the
Constituency. We regret the error. Attached is the correct result for Makindye East, and the report of the Tallying Clerk.”

R 3 (b) referred to above is a letter dated 27 March 2001 signed by Tumwesigye David on behalf of the Counting Officers addressed to the Returning Officer Kampala. It is headed “Error made in tallying the Votes for Makindye” states in part,

“The error has been identified and rectified in relation to the recently concluded Presidential Elections.

The error was made by carrying forward for (sic) from one Tally Sheet to another and wrong adding. While on some tally sheets the totals were carried forward on others the totals were not carried forward. And even then the summary that was added for each tally sheet included the totals that were already carried forward. This caused double counting. This led to votes cast for the candidates totaling to 86,087.