Unsealed boxes Derail Vote Recount in Disputed Kalungu East Election

The Masaka Chief Magistrate’s Court has halted a vote recount in the disputed Kalungu East Constituency parliamentary election after some of the targeted ballot boxes were found unsealed, while others appeared tampered with.

On Tuesday, Masaka Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe had granted an application for a vote recount filed by the NRM candidate, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, who alleged miscalculations of results in favour of his competitor, Yusuf Kiruluuta Nkerettanyi of the National Unity Platform (NUP).

In the application filed by his lawyer, Simon Kasangaki, Ssempijja told court that Nkerettanyi was fictitiously declared the winner due to inflated and ghost votes captured during the tallying process.

Kalungu District Returning Officer Teddy Nabukenya had declared Nkerettanyi the winner with 15,473 votes, defeating Ssempijja, who officially polled 13,219 votes, leaving a margin of 2,254 votes.

However, Ssempijja alleged deliberate inflation of results, omission of polling stations where he had won, and the tallying of non-existent ballots in favour of his opponent. 

He told court that, based on his own computation relying on official Declaration of Results (DR) forms from polling stations, he won the race with 13,298 votes against Nkerettanyi’s 12,832 votes, giving him a winning margin of 466 votes.

Ssempijja, the former Minister for Defence and Veterans Affairs, implored court to order a recount through the opening and examination of ballot boxes to rectify what he described as an error that denied him victory.

In response, Nkerettanyi, through his lawyer Samuel Muyizzi, disputed the grounds of the application, arguing that it was based on fabricated DR forms which, he said, had no place in a court of law. 

The defence further pointed out that Ssempijja had presented multiple DR forms from the same polling stations bearing different figures and signatures, a scenario they described as highly unlikely.

Nevertheless, the trial magistrate ruled in favour of Ssempijja, holding that disputes over results could best be resolved through re-examination of the ballot boxes.

However, when court moved to conduct the recount on Tuesday evening at the Kalungu District Electoral Commission offices, the exercise was prematurely aborted after irregularities were discovered.

During the sorting of ballot boxes at the EC stores in preparation for the recount, it was established that two ballot boxes were completely unsealed, while four others had their seals broken under unclear circumstances.

Faced with this situation, the trial magistrate suspended the recount, saying court could not proceed with the exercise because it was no longer certain that the electoral materials were intact. He instead advised Ssempijja to seek further remedies by filing an election petition in the High Court, which he said has wider jurisdiction to handle such disputes.

Meanwhile, Samuel Muyizzi, who leads Nkerettanyi’s legal team, observed that regardless of the outcome, the decision to grant a recount was improper, arguing that court acted outside the statutory timelines. He said they intend to file a judicial review challenging the decision, which they argue usurps the powers of the Electoral Commission.

Notably, last week the same court partially effected and later halted a recount for the Kalungu West parliamentary election after it was similarly discovered that some ballot boxes had been tampered with.