Voting delayed in Lubaga South, Soroti city as ballot papers are delivered at wrong polling stations

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT | Several polling centres in Lubaga South have not started voting for Lord Mayor and councillors after the ballot papers were delivered to wrong polling stations.

Dickson Ainomugusha the presiding officer for Kabawo Police Post said Polling stations such as Kabawo Police Post ground in Nalukolongo, Kitebi Primary School in Mutundwe received ballot papers meant for Ndeeba, Nateete, Buseega, Najjanankumbi I and Najjanankumbi II.

By 10 am voting in the affected polling stations had not started as they were trying to rectify the mix-up. 

Ali Kibirige, a voter found at Kitebi said some people voted without crosschecking the candidates for Councillor Mutundwe Parish.

“Some people voted and left this place without crosschecking the candidates for councillors in Mutundwe and Kabowa parishes. They just voted party symbols and left,” Kibirige said.

Ainomugusha admitted that the ballot mix up wasn’t detected early enough but about 10 people had already cast their votes.

“The ballot papers for Lord Mayor were okay but the mix up came with ballots for councillors. We are trying to correct the mistake and this is why voting has a bit delayed,” Ainomugusha said.

Robert Kiganda the deputy presiding officer for Kitebi in Mutundwe Parish said teams had been sent to pick the correct ballot papers for the councillors from places where they had been taken.

“It was about an hour when we realized the mistake. Some voters had already left. The interchanged ballots were mainly for Woman councillors,” Kiganda said.

In other polling stations such as Muslim Girls Primary school in Busega, Kiribedda Catholic church, King Fahd Primary School, St Luke Church of Uganda and Busega SDA church the polling officials and agents were almost idle as voters were coming in small numbers. 

In Soroti City, voting was delayed for about two hours in most polling stations after they received ballot papers for women councilors for East A instead of East B. 

At Soroti independents square where there are four polling stations, voting started at 9:00am. Simon Eloru, a presiding officer at Cell C & D polling station admitted that the ballot papers meant for the former Eastern Division were taken to the former Northern Division.  

Eloru blamed the mix-up on the poor packing of the ballot papers. Paul Omer, the acting City Mayor Soroti City who had come to vote at Independent Square was worried that confusion could affect the outcome of the election. 

At Opeduru polling station in Otucopi, voters started casting their votes at 7:30 am before realizing that the ballot papers for women councilors were different. At a polling station at Soroti SS, voters had to cancel all the ballot papers which were marked from a different polling station before it was realized that they were meant for another electoral area. 

Washington Otai, the supervisor for the Central ward said that they were working hard to rectify the problem though it was late. 

Seven people are vying for the Soroti City Mayoral seat.  They include LCV Chairperson Soroti, George Michael Egunyu of NRM, and Joshua Edogu FDC who was formerly the LCIII Chairperson Northern Division.  

********

URN