Urban districts have always registered a low voter turnout. For instance, in the January 2021 presidential election, Kampala had a 43 percent voter turnout. In 2016, it polled 51.48 percent, 41.52 per cent in 2011, 58.7 per cent in 2006.
Amuriat explains that he got into direct confrontations with security agencies—mainly police and the army—on several occasion. For instance, he says he was arrested 13 times, confined in different places, taken to court three times.
Like many parents whose kids are missing, Nakibuuka says she is now left with listening to news on radio and television waiting for the list of people under detention from government.
According to Namatovu, because of her hearing impairment, her deceased son was a vital part of her life matrix since he served as her interpreter. Representing people with disabilities at Kawempe Division Council, she has already tested the perils of her son’s demise. “Now, the people I represent quarrel because they call and no one picks, they say I am not working,” she said.
EC spokesperson Paul Bukenya says they are looking into the issue and will give an explanation of the figures on its genuine declaration form, which don’t add up. The tweet has been a sensation with many people referring to it as an indication of manipulated election results.
Mwesigye cast his vote at Banga-Nakiwogo Playground (L-NAJ) polling station. The polling station is located in Division A, Entebbe Municipality within the vicinity of Special Forces Command (SFC) army barracks. This is where Mwesigye cast his vote, in the company of his wife Fausta Nansubug, and his Electoral Commission bodyguards.
A common thread from responses of people who never voted, and community leaders in areas that had a low voter turnout are panic that there was going to violence after the election, which prompted people to run to their countryside homes and belief that elections cannot result in change.
But Declaration Forms from the same districts that were collected by National Unity Platform (NUP) agents all have a collection of invalid votes. Our tally, based on the figures on the declaration forms shows that there were 6,443 invalid votes from the three districts.
Unlike previous elections where Museveni won in both districts, he lost to the National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu also known as Bobi Wine. Bobi Wine won Buvuma district with 64 per cent of the total votes cast while Museveni scored 32 per cent, a drop from the 57 per cent score against Kiiza Besigye in 2016.
President Museveni polled 161, 864 votes at these polling stations representing 95.8 percent of votes cast, with all other candidates including Willy Mayambala with 14 ballots cast in his favour, at least getting some votes at the 409 stations. These polling stations had 1,354 invalid votes.
The election final tally sheet shows that Tumukunde won Entebbe Comprehensive Secondary School [A-BUS] with 371 votes representing 62 per cent of the total votes cast and Kawafu Namagembe's Place (NAM-Z) with 454 votes representing 51 per cent of the total votes cast.
However, Uganda Radio Network (URN)'s fact check shows that Eastern Uganda which comprised of sub-regions categorized as Elgon, Kiira, and Eastern (Teso), has a total of 144 Members of Parliament. These represent a total of 101 constituencies, 40 districts and three special interest group representatives; one for the youth, the elderly and the other representing persons with disabilities.
In Kiruhura—the president’s home district—Museveni polled 23,130 more votes than the people who voted for the Woman MP. He scored 75,483, representing 98.76 of votes cast, in the district that had a voter turnout of 93. 91 per cent.
But according to interviews conducted with more than a dozen people from the two villages, Museveni did not score zero in the area: he scored 100 votes at St. Kizito Primary School (N-Z) and 152 votes at Nyambulie, giving him a total of 252 votes.
The EC Chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama says these were voters whose eligibility had been contested. For instance, he says some people were thought to have left the areas but later surfaced while some were even candidates in the same areas.
Museveni scoring 100 percent at a polling station in Kiruhura isn’t unprecedented. But the magnitude is unmatched, if compared to scores of the previous elections. For instance, in the 2016 election, Museveni scored 100 percent at 'only' 141 polling stations, most of them were in Kiruhura, while others were in Nakaseke.
President Museveni scored more than 70 percent in 51 districts, polling 2.69 million votes of the 3.21 million valid votes cast in these districts. This score represents about 44 percent of 6.04 million votes Museveni polled in the January 14th presidential, according to final presidential election results released by the Electoral Commission today.
But tracking Museveni’s donations in Kampala and analysing what technocrats said were likely cost implications of the president's policies over the last three years, this article is an attempt to compute the cost of Museveni’s charm offensive scheme strategy that didn’t deliver votes in Kampala. The analysis reveal Museveni’s charm offensive strategy to win voters the city may have costed more than UGX 50 billion.
Blanshe Musinguzi · author