Kampala, Uganda | URN | Days after the National Unity Platform (NUP) former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine declared himself winner of the January 14 presidential election with 54.19 per cent, the party has not provided data backing its grand claim.
Sandwiched by tens of files, the party said were declaration forms they collected. Bobi Wine on Tuesday 9, March 2021 said; “What do these DR forms say? The DR forms prove that we won the election by 54.19 per cent, despite the massive ballot stuffing and other forms of rigging. We therefore won the 14th January 2021 election.”
Bobi Wine said he polled 6,116,959 votes, yet the Electoral Commission (EC) data shows that he got 3,631,437 votes. It’s an increase of 2,485,522 votes. And for Museveni, NUP claims he scored 4,382,669 votes which is a 1,660,229 reduction, yet he polled 6,042,898 votes according EC.
NUP claims a higher voter turnout of 11,682,122, equal to 64.53 per cent compared to EC’s 10,744,319 total votes which equals to 59.35 per cent. This means NUP’s tally had an additional 937,803 votes compared to that of EC. Lewis Rubongoya, NUP Secretary General claimed that they discovered that in many districts, Bobi Wine’s votes had been systematically reduced.
Curiously though, NUP’s numbers of invalid votes is exactly the same as the number of invalid votes 393,500 declared by the EC. But this publication tallied 6,443 invalid votes from districts of Pakwach, Budaka and Katakwi where EC data had claimed zero invalid votes. The DR forms used to tally these invalid votes were provided by NUP. This is an indication that invalid votes could have been higher.
For other candidates, NUP results show all of them except Mayambala Willy performed better than what the EC published. According to NUP’s results, FDC’s Patrick Oboi Amuriat polled 412,230 which is 3.65 per cent compared to EC’s 337,589 or 3.26 per cent.
Joseph Kabuleta scored 50,470 in NUP’s tally compared to EC’s 45,424, Nancy Kalembe 43,082 compared to EC’s 38,772, John Katumba 41,725 compared to EC’s 37,554, Norbert Mao 65,603 compared to EC’s 57,682, Mugisha Muntu 76,100 contrasting EC’s 67,574, Fred Mwesigye 29,003 compared to EC’s 25,483 and Henry Tumukunde 57,104 compared to EC’s 51,392 votes. Willy Mayambala votes reduced from 15,014 as per EC data to 13,677 according to NUP.
Bobi Wine said the Electoral Commission (EC) “rigged this election brainlessly” for Museveni. The rigging he argued was executed “in such an amateurish manner that it does not require any wisdom to understand.” He cited 19 polling stations where he claims that results were entirely not entered. Bobi also cites other 19 polling stations where he claims that his results were “deliberately reduced” while Museveni was given more votes.
Then Bobi Wine claimed that, “at over 1,700 polling stations, results from the Electoral Commission (EC) compared to DR forms in our possession indicate a deliberate intention to increase the results of Gen. Museveni unfairly in selected polling stations.” But he only mentions 10 polling stations.
Also, he claims that “at many polling stations,” the number of votes indicated on DR forms exceeded the total number of registered voters though he cites only two, Bugula Primary School polling station and St Jude. He doesn’t mention the location of these polling stations.
One clarity that Bobi Wine gave was at 94 polling stations highlighting anomalies such as his votes being reduced, not entered, or awarding Museveni more votes. An analysis of these polling stations by this publication reveals that Bobi Wine’s votes would have been 13,723 but EC recorded 5,028, reducing his score by 8,695.
Interestingly, as per analysis of these polling stations, Museveni was also cheated by the EC. The president polled 17,034 as per EC records but he would have got 18,477 votes, meaning he was cheated of 1,438 votes.
The party spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi says they derived Bobi Wine’s 54.19 per cent win from 25,034 declaration forms they managed to collect. For the remaining polling stations (9,650), he said they used EC declaration forms.
Read Also: EC tells Kyagulanyi to stop misleading Ugandans, move on
EC spokesperson Paul Bukenya says all candidates have been given access to the declaration forms. NUP’s Rubongoya confirmed that they got access to EC’s declaration forms. NUP published candidate scores summary, district summary on its website. Its district summary though is a png image format.They have also started uploading declaration forms.
But NUP has not stated plainly at how many polling stations did they find that Bobi Wine’s votes had been cheated, flipping his score from 35.08 per cent of EC to 54.19 per cent. They have also not provided polling stations summary they generated from declaration forms.
“That is a tabulation we are doing with specificity,” Ssenyonyi said.
And for polling stations tally sheet, he said “We want to first upload then we shall compile for polling stations,” but hastens to add “but you can get whichever polling station you like from the DR forms since each DR form represents a polling station.”
