“Accordingly, as Returning Officer for … MUKONO … Electoral district and in accordance with Section 147 of the Local Governments Act, Cap. 138, I declare … LUKOOYA FRANCIS MUKOOME… who has obtained the largest number of votes to be elected candidate for… MUKONO… Electoral District.”
Drama unfolded at Mukono district Electoral Commission tally centre when the returning officer, Emily Amongin, initially declared NUP’s Johnson Muyanja Ssenyonga the winner of the district chairperson seat, only to reverse her decision hours later and declare NRM’s Francis Lukooya Mukoome the winner instead.
The about-turn followed a closed-door meeting with NRM officials, including Haji Haruna Ssemakula, the district NRM chairperson and Capt. Reagan Muganza, amid heavy police presence. NUP supporters protested, alleging coercion, but were blocked by police.
Amongin first declared Johnson Muyanja Ssenyonga of the National Unity Platform (NUP) with 51,686 followed by Francis Lukooya Mukoome of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) who had garnered 50,254.
Unlike the usual way of declaring winners from inside the tallying boardroom but with the media covering the returning officer, this time round Amongin did not allow that, she made the declaration inside with the heavily armed police officers guarding around the entrance to bar any person from entering not even the candidates nor the journalists.
However, drama ensued immediately after declaring Muyanja when supporters of the winner and the loser then (Lukooya) simultaneously going in wild ululations of victory.
It took the intervention of the Mukono district NRM chairperson, Haji Haruna Ssemakula and Capt. Reagan Muganza to enter and hold Amongin for more than two hours in a closed meeting inside her office which NUP Muyanja called coercion to change the results in NRM’s favour.
Muyanja’s interventions to protest the actions of Haji Ssemakula and Capt. Muganza’s actions of coercing the returning officer against the declaration she had just made fell on a dead rock as the police officers blocked him from accessing the office.
He therefore, together with the newly elected Mukono district Woman MP, Sheillah Draville Amaniyo and Mukono South MP, Robert Maseruka confronted the Mukono Division Police Commander, Bernard Mugerwa pleading but all their efforts did not yield any positive result.
After some time, Haji Ssemakula came out of the office through the back door and it took another more than an hour with everything at the tally centre at a standstill.
Later, all the computers inside the tally center were disconnected and packed but without any communication apart from the accumulated security deployment from police and UPDF personnel. All this happened on Friday after the polling which happened on Thursday.
At about 6:30pm, not like the previous turn of events where Amongin made the declarations from inside the room, this time she came to the verandah and changed her prior declaration on the post of the district chairperson.
“I, Amongin Emily being the Returning Officer for MUKONO Electoral District, having added up the number of votes cast as recorded on each Declaration of Results Form in accordance with section 147 of the Local Governments Act, Cap. 138, declare that the total number of valid votes cast for each Candidate are as follows: – Lukooya Francis Mukoome 52,523, Muyanja Johnson Ssenyonga, 52,105 and Lauben Ssenyonjo 3095,” she read and added;
“Accordingly, as Returning Officer for … MUKONO … Electoral district and in accordance with Section 147 of the Local Governments Act, Cap. 138, I declare … LUKOOYA FRANCIS MUKOOME… who has obtained the largest number of votes to be elected candidate for… MUKONO… Electoral District.”
Lukooya’s camp did not wait for Amongin to finish the declaration, they started the jubilations jumping up and down. For Muyanja, he did not cause any fracas, he just moved out gently and to date, he is yet to announce his way forward.
The chairpersons’ declaration was followed by the ones for councillors but also the NUP candidates complained that most of the positions they had overwhelmingly won were overturned and the win awarded to NRM’s candidates.
As they tried to show their grievances, the police officers armed with guns, burtons and electric wires confronted them, asked them to keep calm and get out peacefully or resist if they wanted to be forced out in another style. Some of them walked out yet others remained seated down.
Lukooya said that he had already tallied his votes which were showing him as a winner but he was surprised again to hear the returning officer declaring another person.
“My team approached her and raised my concern, given the fact that she had not yet handed over the declaration form to Muyanja, she accepted the mistake she had made and promised to do a correction,” he said.