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Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Presiding officers at the different polling stations in Buwenge Sub County in Jinja district on Wednesday failed to operate Biometric voter verification kits-BVVK causing chaos at the different polling stations.
At some of the polling stations visited by URN reporter visited, presiding officers who spoke on condition of anonymity say that they had been directed to use BVVK machines without fail and directed to in turn suspend the polling exercise in case of any technical breakdowns.
Grace Nabyama, a voter from Namalere central polling station says that the BVVK machine broke down at around 12:00 pm when less than half of the voters had cast their ballot.
Nabyama says that such delays exhibited by polling officials have forced some voters to flee the polling station without electing their preferred candidates.
Rachel Kubaaza, a voter from Buwera West polling station says that it is meaningless for her to wait for the EC officials repair BVVK machine yet she has to return to the market to sell her vegetables.
Kubaaza argues that EC officials should have immediate backup plans of handling such anomalies to enable voters to attend to their other duties after the exercise.
Lydia Nabatanzi, the Jinja District Returning Officer says that some presiding officers misplaced the BVVK passwords given to them, which affected the voting.
Some ballot boxes were taken to wrong polling stations hence causing delays. At Good Hope Nursery School A-M, polling station, Good hope nursery school N-Z, Buwenge health center IV polling station and market zone polling stations, the ballot papers for LCIII Chairperson were not sealed, causing suspicion of possible vote-rigging.
Eva Lukudde, a voter says that she was among the ten voters selected to witness the opening of ballot boxes at around 11:00 am but on inspecting the items, the ballot papers for chairpersons ballot papers were 200 yet the registers have a total number of 390 voters.
Moses Kamubona, a voter from Market zone polling station says that ballot papers for LCIII chairpersons were not delivered on time and EC officials took close to three hours rectifying the abnormally, prompting them to resume voting at around 11:00 am.
In Entebbe polling was disrupted at the four out of the nine polling stations in Gulwe and Kisaba parishes in Bussi Sub County due to faulty biometric machines and delayed delivery of polling materials, which were delivered at 9:40 am.
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