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Citizen Posts
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Almost a month ago, a group of army officers including Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso told Ugandans that they should go home immediately after casting their vote on voting day. These were countering Bobi Wine’s NUP’s message to their voters that they should stay around to witness vote counting and whatever takes place at the polling station.
Their threats were later confirmed by the chairperson Electoral Commission Justice Simon Mugyenyi Byabakama who without quoting any legal provision said voters should immediately return home after casting their vote. He even revealed that those who dare stay around will be arrested like nsenene.
The Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Keinerugaba re-iterated the same GO BACK HOME AFTER VOTING also eliciting several voices from voters who have questioned whether government is planning something fishy at the polling stations which they don’t want voters to see.
As Ugandans prepare for elections in a country where several police officers and high ranking soldiers have been seen openly campaigning for president Museveni, it just becomes suspicious that the same people are the one’s telling voters to go back home after voting.
But amidst the hullabaloo on whether to go home or to stay around and observer what’s happening at the polling station, the Presidential Elections Act however says otherwise.
According to the laws of the land in the Presidential Elections Act Section 33, Sub-section 4 state that ; “A voter who has cast his or her vote and all other persons in the vicinity of the polling station other than election officers, candidates, agents of candidates and observers shall stand or sit at least twenty metres away from the table mentioned in subsection”
As parliament resumed today and responding to Kira MP Ssemuju Nganda concerns of military taking over the management of elections and whether it’s a position of government that voters should return home immediately after voting, the attorney General contradicted with the army bosses and guided on what’s right by law.
“I can say without fear of contradiction that after voting even you the members of parliament you must not stay at the polling station, when you’re 20 meters away that’s not a polling station, encourage every one not to stay at the polling station. When you finish voting, you leave the polling station 20 meters away…..”said Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka
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