Vice-president widens lead as tallying of votes continues in Wakiso

WAKISO polling agents yesterday continued to tally valid votes despite the cancellation of the polls announced by the NRM electoral commission on Monday night.<br>

By Francis Kagolo and Juliet Lukwago 
                                        
WAKISO polling agents yesterday continued to tally valid votes despite the cancellation of the polls announced by the NRM electoral commission on Monday night.

Like in most other districts, the elections were suspended due to inadequate voting materials.

When New Vision arrived at Kakiri, the sub-county registrar, Diana Kibuye, was tallying votes from the parishes that received ballot papers.

The provisional results from six out of the eight parishes indicated that Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, Jonah Nsubuga and Woman MP Rosemary Sseninde were in the lead.

However, the district remained calm yesterday as most NRM supporters sat in small groups in the trading centres, waiting for more information from the party headquarters.

The district Police commander, Abu Kalule, explained that they had not recorded any violence following the cancellation of the elections.

Only three men, he noted, tried to incite voters to riot at Namusera on Hoima Road but the Police foiled their attempts. They were later released on Police bond.

Bukenya on Monday blamed the NRM secretariat for the mess that characterised the primaries.

“There has been poor handling of party elections countrywide. These things can cause trouble. People can kill each other,” Bukenya said on Monday.

Paul Wamala Nsubuga, vying to for the Busiro East Parliament seat, threatened to sue the party over the nullified primary elections.

Nsubuga was competing with Joseph Jjemba, Ronald Tumwine and Annette Miiro in the primaries. The constituency is currently represented by FDC’s Susan Nakawuki.

Talking to New Vision in Wakiso town, Wamala castigated the party’s electoral bosses over the poor voting arrangement.

“They had promised to provide returning officers with the (national) voters’ registers but we ended up using the Yellow Book (the NRM register) which lacked many names. Many people ended up not voting,” Wamala complained.

“We are a big party but everything is messed up. What happened?” Wamala asked.
He also complained that returning officers in the district had not pinned up his photos at the polling stations as they did for other candidates.

Since the ballot papers did not carry the candidates’ pictures, polling officials were supposed to display the photos at each polling station during the exercise.

“They displayed photos of all my opponents and left out mine. This is total unfairness,” the furious Wamala stated.