Kampala , Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Voting for the NRM primaries Kampala Woman Member of Parliament in Nakawa East was characterised by delays in delivering election material and absence of polling agents. By 9:00 am, no voting point in the constituency had received voting materials.
Many of the designated polling stations were bare, with no string to demarcate the areas or any election official visible. In some other places, last-minute changes of polling stations left many confused.
At the KCCA division offices, some voters who made their way to the polling station as early as 8 a.m. decided to go back to the market. Robert Atukwasa, A fruit vendor in Nakawa market told URN that he did not want to waste his whole working day at the polling station.
At 8:43 a.m., there was no sign that voting would take place at designated polling stations in Mutungo, Biina and Kinawataka. The designated field at Elioni zone located in Mutungo was also empty with no polling agents or demarcating string or police officer seen.
The only sign that voting would take place at the field were NRM enthusiasts gathered at the field and a megaphone used to make announcements directing people to go to the field and vote. Juliet Akampa, an NRM enthusiast and supporter of Woman MP aspirant Bambi Faridah told URN they were told voting starts at 11:00 am.
At zone A located in Biina, the designated voting site was changed at the last moment from the home of a polling agent to St James Catholic Church Biina. The last-minute change according to the agents that we found at the Church left voters confused and by the time we arrived at the new site; 45 minutes to the designated time for the voting to start, there were no voters at the site.
“There’s a voting place where we always vote from but today morning we were told to move to the Church. The voters, many of whom are old women are now not willing to leave the comfort of their homes and walk the short distance to the church,” Agnes Mukasa a polling agent at the church said.
Mariam Nakagga, a voter in Biina zone A who we found at the earlier designated place complains, ” These people are confused. They are now telling us to go and vote from somewhere else. Why didn’t they tell us this earlier.”
The story was the same at Kiduuka zone in Mutungo, where a small parking lot that was designated had no material delivered by 9:30 am.
At Mile 4 Zone in Mbuya, the lack of one polling agent stalled the voting process. While voters slowly trickled in, they had to look for shade at the verandahs of nearby shops to wait for the missing polling agent.
The delays experienced in Nakawa East are contrary to the party’s polling procedures. According to the NRM electoral commission, all polling stations need to be demarcated by a string. In addition to this, all polling stations should a police officer attached to it and all voters are supposed to converge at polling stations by 10:00 am so that reading of names on the registry can take place to enable voting to start at 11:00 am.
A few minutes to the allocated start of the voting process, many stations were empty with no voters while some polling agents did not even have pictures of the candidates vying for the post. Despite the delay in starting and the last minute changes at some polling stations, the atmosphere was calm.
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