Mukono district receives polling materials
Jan 07, 2021
During the offloading exercise, some of the boxes were found with broken seals whose serial numbers were recorded and replaced with new ones.
ELECTION WATCH
Some of the parliamentary candidates and agents in Mukono district have witnessed the arrival and offloading of polling materials for both presidential and parliamentary elections which will be held on January 14th.
The exercise held at the Mukono Electoral Commission (EC) offices in Mukono town have been presided over by the Mukono district registrar, Mark Maganzi Mayanja.
Some of the candidates who have personally attended include; Mary Margaret Nalugo Ssekiziyivu contesting for Mukono district woman MP seat, Fred Kayondo and Wilson Male contesting for Mukono South MP seat, Erisa Mukasa Nkoyoyo who stood in for Mukono Municipality MP, Betty Nambooze Bakireke and others.
Muganzi has told the candidates and the agents that they have received 619 boxes which are to be kept safely until January 13 when the exercise of dispatching them to different polling stations will commence.
During the offloading exercise, some of the boxes were found with broken seals whose serial numbers were recorded and replaced with new ones.
Nalugo however, asked Muganzi, the returning officer, to provide them with copies of the delivery records to make the process of verification easier and more transparent.
However, Nalugo said that Muganzi declined and referred her to the EC headquarters in Kampala.
"The intention of having the delivery report is for us to know how many ballot boxes together with the serial numbers were loaded on the vehicle. It helps us to know whether the ones delivered tally with those that were packed from the EC headquarters," she noted.
Male showed dismay saying though other candidates were called to witness the exercise, he had picked the information from social media saying he expected the EC to treat all the candidates equal.
"As a stakeholder, I am entitled to any official notification by the registrar about such exercise. We are all equal before the electoral commission and I expect the commission to treat us alike," he said.
Kayondo said that according to his observation, the process looked transparent and asked that all the activities must be conducted in such manner to avoid any candidate from doubting the EC.
The exercise which started at around midday on Wednesday (January 6, 2021) went past 7:00pm.