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

(2) That I am a registered voter in the 2007 Presidential Elections at Bubare Headquarters B polling station.

(5) That on the polling day as I was going to monitor at Ahabigungiro polling station, Mr. Dan Kaguta, the Deputy RDC of Kabale stopped and offered to give me a lift.


(6) That in the car, he asked me whether I was going to vote for Candidate Museveni and I said I was, where upon he told me that in that case, I must overlook whatever rigging I saw.

(7) That at Kaziniro polling station. I saw Kaguta distribute to each of LC 11 chairman, presiding officer and a police constable a bundle of cards and money.

(8) That at Ahabigungiro polling station the said Kaguta gave more cards to the polling officials to distribute to Museveni’s supporters.


(9) That later when he found LC officials distributing these cards, he seized a stack of 6 of those cards from Kate Tumwijukye — but he was summoned by the presiding officer and ordered to stop forth-with, since the cards were for Museveni whom I had told them I supported. For fear of being harmed I refrained from complaining and so rigging continued unchecked.

Although the 2^nd respondent denied knowledge of this and although respective presiding officers denied any knowledge, I know that they would not admit that they permitted such malpractice to be committed. However, the affidavit of Kiryowa ldd from Sembabule stated in paragraph 7 that:

“Kakuru who had earlier on cast his vote came back and stuffed a heap of ballot papers in the ballot box but because I had earlier on been threatened. I kept quiet”

Then Byaruhanga Yahaya of Busia stated in his paragraph 4 of his affidavit:

“That I also noted that one Birungi voted twice at Marach polling station.”

Ssentongo from Ntungamo stated in paragraph 5 that soldiers at polling station allowed Museveni’s supporters to vote more than once. When he complained about it, his complaint was ignored.

Then Mubarak Kirunda from Mayuge stated that within Magamaga army barracks soldiers were voting many times. He saw some civilians whom he knew, wearing
army uniform and voting when he complained soldiers chased him from the polling station.

Then the affidavit of Patrick Matsiko Wa Mucoori senior reporter with the Monitor Newspaper stated”

“(1) 1 am an adult Ugandan and a registered voter at Bihanga polling station
(2) That I work as a senior reporter with the Monitor News paper
(7) That on the polling station of the civilians where I reached first, I found several people complaining that their names were missing from the register.
(18) That in the progress of the voting I started noting that people who had already voted were voting again at this same station and I continued seeing many voters voting multiples times.
(19) That at one moment I saw a young girl of about 12 years coming to vote with voter’s card and she was allowed to vote
(21) That after the incident of the 12 years old girl who voted once, other voters continued to vote several times, and in formed the presiding officer and pointed out 2 (two) men whom I was sure had already voted but had come back to vote again and asked the presiding officer to check on the names of the men on the voters cards and then ask their real names. The presiding officer declined to do that.
(22) That I again saw the Battalion intelligence officer voting more than five times by changing his clothes each time he came to vote.
(23) That when multiple voting continued I started getting scared of my safety and restrained myself from pointing out the many multiple voters.
(25) That the presiding officer asked why I was observing votes. I told him that was a journalist and I told him that it was part of my job.
(26) That the presiding officer then confiscated my personal effects mobile phone, note book — Regimental police took me to quarter guard. Later I was released.

I must state that the affidavits have shown to my satisfaction that in a limited number of polling stations, election officials permitted multiple voting. This offended section 31 of the Act.

6. Furthermore, there was complaint that 2’ respondent’s presiding officers failed to prevent petitioner’s polling agents from being chased away from the polling stations. It was contended that this contravened section 32 of the Act. The 2 respondent said nothing to controvert this complaint.

Clearly, the affidavits of James Musinguzi, Moses Babikinamu, Sam Kakuru, Alex Busingye and Bonafice Ngaruye show that polling agents for petitioner were chased and voting continued.

In my opinion, the presiding officer having been in-charge of the polling station, he failed to stop intruders from chasing away petitioner’s polling agents. Therefore, wherever it was done this was in breach of section 32 of the Act.

7. Another complaint was that the 2nd respondent’s Presiding Officers permitted people who had no voters’ card to vote. The 2 respondent conceded that it did, if such people could be properly identified.

With respect, I think this was in breach of sections 29(4) and 34 of the presidential Elections Act.
Sub-section 4 of Section 29 provides: