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EC: It’s Wrong To Include Invalid Votes Percentage In Computation Of Presidential Candidates’ Scores

Paul Bukenya, the Acting EC Spokersperson

The Electoral Commission Thursday, January 28, 2021 published final results of Presidential Elections held on Thursday 14th January 2021.

After publsihng the results, a number of Ugandans took to social media to wrongly attacking EC, saying that the total percentage of scores by Presidential canidates exceeded 100%.

The final summary of Presidential Election Results is as follows:

Registered Voters:18,103,603
Total No. of Polling Stations:34,684
Total No. of Polling Stations Received:34,601 (99.76% of total polling stations)
  
 Candidates’ NamesVotes% 
Amuriat Oboi Patrick337,5893.26%of valid votes cast for candidates
Kabuleeta Kiiza Joseph45,4240.44%
Kalembe Nancy Linda38,7720.37%
Katumba John37,5540.36%
Kyagulanyi Robert Sentamu3,631,43735.08%
Mao Norbert57,6820.56%
Mayambala Willy15,0140.15%
Mugisha Muntu Gregg67,5740.65%
Mwesigye Fred25,4830.25%
Tumukunde Henry Kakurugu51,3920.50%
Yoweri Museveni Tibuhaburwa Kaguta6,042,89858.38%
Valid Votes10,350,819  
Invalid Votes393,5003.66%of Total Votes Cast
Total Votes10,744,31959.35%of Registered Voters
Spoilt Votes29,913  

However, EC Acting Spokesperson Paul Bukenya says it is misleading to include the percentage of invalid votes into the total percentage of the presidential candidates’ scores.

Bukenya says Section  57(4) of the Presidential Elections Act provides for consideration of percentage of valid votes cast at the election.

“It is wrong to include invalid votes in computation of scores by candidates, as they are not allocated to any candidate. It will give you a misleading percentage,” Bukenya says, urging Ugandans to refer to statistics provided at www.ec.or.ug  to aid their analysis.

He explained that  Section 57(4) of the Presidential Elections Act talks about number of votes cast in favour of a candidate (this excludes invalids).

“We include invalids under total votes cast, to account for them.

Please see the note in the column on the results sheet which specifically states…% of valid votes cast for candidates, does not say total votes cast for candidates,” he explained.

Taddewo William Senyonyi
https://www.facebook.com/senyonyi.taddewo
William is a seasoned business and finance journalist. He is also an agripreneur and a coffee enthusiast.

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