There was a scuffle and panic during LC 1 By-Election in Lugala Zone 1 Lubaga Municipality as police and soldiers were deployed to quell any demonstration that could arise.
The candidates in the race were four; John Bosco, Saddam Baluboine, Enock Kamya, and Gonzaga Kabuye.
Stiff competition was between two candidates Gonzaga of National Resistance who also acted as vice chairman and Kibalama of People Power.
At the end of the day, Gonzaga was declared a winner with 532 votes whereas Kibalama was given 425.
In the middle of casting votes, security was tightened at around 10:00 am after Ezera Ongalia the presiding Officer was seen colluding with other electoral officers trying to rig elections on behalf of Gonzaga
This forced Kibalama and is supporters to make demands that the presiding officer be changed after publically showing sides before votes have been even cast.
Unfortunately, the electorates were overpowered and voting commenced amidst heavy deployment of police and Updf officers.
At around 6:00 pm, the tallying of elections was done. What surprised the electorates was that police and army officers were the ones who were tallying votes instead of the presiding officers or other EC staff members who were on the ground.
When voters started questioning the validity of the process of election, officers on the ground threatened to shoot live bullets if anyone dared to demonstrate or riot.
At the end of the NRM’s candidate, Gonzaga was declared a winner with 532 votes and Kibalama given 425 votes.
This angered the opposition members because total voters who came out to cast votes were less than 900 people.
This made people wonder how the General elections of 2021 will be if NRM and Government’s move of including police and UPDF in tallying of votes if passed and approved by Parliament