The Uganda Police Force has questioned staff of the country’s Electoral Commission over the Jinja East By-election.
This development was revealed Monday by the electoral body’s spokesperson, Jotham Taremwa.
“Police investigations on Jinja East by-election ongoing. Some staff that worked have been questioned. Please keep calm and cooperate with investigators,” Taremwa tweeted.
However, he did not divulge details of why the staff were questioned.
The election held last month was won by opposition party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate, Paul Mwiru.
Mwiru polled 6,654 votes against NRM’s Igeme Nabeta who polled 5,043 votes. Mwiru said he entered the election with a loss of over 2,000 votes in reference to the alleged 2,000 ghost voters on the registry and the over 8,000 pre-ticked votes that were allegedly confiscated from Nabeta’s camp.
Thousands of pre-ticked ballot papers in favour of the NRM candidate, Nabeta, were discovered from Iganga Road Junction polling station, according to election watchdog, Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU).
Taremwa later in a statement disowned the pre-ticked ballot papers, saying on scrutiny, the electoral body verified that the serial numbers of those ballot papers were not from the Electoral Commission.
The by-election was occasioned by a court ruling that nullified Nabeta’s 2016 election victory on grounds that he connived with the Electoral Commission to alter results at Danida A-D polling station which put him at an advantage.
