| The army rigged for Museveni Officer | ||
| SOLOMON MUYITA,HUSSEIN BOGERE & SIRAJE K. LUBWAMA | ||
| MENGO A serving UPDF soldier is ready to tell the Supreme Court that fellow soldiers of the 2nd Division in Mbarara Barracks were coached and ordered to vote for President Museveni in last months presidential election. Pte Allan Barigye of Army No. RA 184580, who has come out to support Dr Kizza Besigyes petition challenging the election outcome in the Supreme Court because of malpractice, says he would show that the soldiers in the barracks voted several times over. Multiple voting is against the electoral law.
The soldier spells out his charges in an affidavit he swore before the chief magistrates court in Mbarara on March 15 after escaping from army custody. He and several colleagues were locked up after defying their superiors orders to vote against their will. Barigyes affidavit is one of more than 100 presented to the Supreme Court on Friday supporting the petition filed by Besigye, who was the FDC presidential candidate in the February 23 poll. Besigye is contesting the results of that election in which he emerged runner-up with 37 percent of the vot
e. NRM
candidate Museveni was re-elected with 59 percent. This could well be an unprecedented case where a serving soldier openly works against the interests of his commander-in-chief. It will particularly dishearten Mr Museveni, a leader who loves his army immensely and therefore expects the favour to be returned. Besigye wants to prove that the first multi-party elections in 25 years were neither free nor fair because they were characterised by intimidation, voter buying, and multiple voting, among other ills. Besigye has sued both the President and the Electoral Commission, which organised the elections. In his sworn affidavit to the Supreme Court, which will start hearing the petition on Wednesday, Museveni says these are the best elections Uganda has ever had. He has consequently rubbished his main opponents allegations. But Pte Barigye is ready to pin his commander-in-chief. "I together with my colleagues were given 10 voters
cards
each belonging to our other colleagues [for example] those who died, those in Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda, those abroad for studies and others on unknown missions and we were asked to use them to vote," Barigye says in the affidavit. The soldier adds: "On February 23, 2006, I together with my colleagues in the barracks were briefed and ordered by Capt. Chris Ndyabagye, the [2nd] Division Intelligence Officer to vote for the 2nd Respondent." The first respondent in the petition is the Electoral Commission. The soldier says they were instructed to carry the various voters cards under their shirtsleeves in order to "keep voting again and again, using one card at a time". He says Brig. Hudson Mukasa, the division commander, later collected the cards from soldiers who were done with voting for re-distribution elsewhere. Barigye says on top of the 10 voters cards, each of the soldiers was given "17 ballot papers with 16 of them a
lready
pre-ticked in favour of the 2nd Respondent... I refused to put them in the box and pocketed them instead. The presiding officer saw me and my four other colleagues and reported us to the division commander and we were arrested soon thereafter. I managed to escape and right now I am on the run while my 4 colleagues are still held up in prison." Barigye identified the soldiers still in custody for refusing to vote several times for Museveni as Rogers Wandera, Moses Kiiza, Ivan Kakuru and Immanuel Tumusiime. The soldiers voted just outside their barracks around the country. It is not clear whether what Barigye says happened in Mbarara was repeated in other barracks elsewhere in the country. But there were other reported multiple voting incidents outside the barracks. The Supreme Court will also hear that Ms Conatance Kagonyera of Rushenyi County in Ntungamo District saw polling officers openly give more than three ballot papers to some people who went to the polling centres flashing the thumb, a sign which signifies support for candidate Museveni. Each of the three ballot papers was to be used to vote for President, area MP and district woman MP. In Buhweju County in Bushenyi District, ISO operative Gilbert Bintabara ordered the presiding officer to identify NRM supporters and give them more than one ballot paper while voting for President, according to county FDC Publicity Secretary John Fischer Tumuheirwes affidavit. He also claims that LC-III Chairman Col. Rutankudira, dressed in a Movement T-shirt, insisted on voting for five people. Another affidavit sworn by Mr Charles Malinga of Mbarara shows that soldiers at Lubiri Quarter Guard Polling Station voted several times because the presiding officer ignored the register. Following this, the FDC agents declined to sign the declaration forms. The presiding officer went ahead and signed the forms himself and also purported to sign on behalf of our
agents, Malinga swears in his affidavit. |
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