Media Free To Announce Polls

Mar 06, 2001

THE Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday said the media will be free to announce verified results of the March 12 presidential election as they come in, but they are not supposed to announce results based on their own tallies, Hamis Kaheru reports.

THE Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday said the media will be free to announce verified results of the March 12 presidential election as they come in, but they are not supposed to announce results based on their own tallies, Hamis Kaheru reports. "We are only opposed to the media adding up results from various polling stations to arrive at a national winner," the EC public relations officer, Mr. Dick Kizito, said. He was reacting to concerns from the public that stopping the media from announcing results on spot had raised suspicion and would undermine transparency in the exercise. Kizito said allowing the media to tally (add up) results was dangerous. "That can cause a problem in case candidates influence radio stations to announce results in their favour but which have not been verified by the EC," he said adding that tallying should be left to the commission. "The media can announce results from polling stations after counting because that will be public knowledge," he said. He said the unit for results would be at constituency level where they will be tallied and then forwarded to the returning officer at the district. "If the returning officer verifies the results and announces them you (the media) can also announce the outcome for that particular district," he said. Kizito said the commission was setting up a media centre at the International Conference Centre in Kampala for purposes of declaring results. He said the declaration exercise would be broadcast live on Radio Uganda, Star Radio and probably CBS. Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police John Kisembo yesterday denied that he warned FM radio stations against announcing results. Ends

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