Maureen Kyalya Walube, the only female presidential candidate has rapped the Electoral Commission (EC) chairperson for the ineffectiveness that has marred the presidential and parliamentary polls in Jinja district.
This was after the delay to deliver voting materials both in urban and rural areas despite assurance by the EC chairperson Dr. Badru Kiggundu that the polls would begin at 7:00am.
Instead, in some parts of Jinja town, the exercise began at 9:30am, while in some rural areas; they had not begun by 11:00am.
Kyalya arrived at Preparatory Primary School in Lubaga parish, Mpumudde/Kimaka division in Jinja municipality where she voted from at 9:20am when the materials had not yet been delivered.
According to her public relations officer Andrew Gulumaire, Kyalya had scheduled to cast her vote at 8:00am.
Kyalya and other voters pitched camp at the venue as she tried to contact the Jinja district returning officer Anthony Mwaita who allegedly cut her off.
“This is where the NRM meeting took place last night from 9:00pm to 12:00am, but I am disappointed that Jinja, which is the first district in eastern region from Kampala, has not begun voting yet other districts are voting,” she said.
Shortly the materials were delivered and polling officials began demarcating the premises.
In an interview, Mwaita said the delay was due to the late delivery of the materials from Kampala.
He said the materials were delivered to Jinja from Kampala at 7:30am on Thursday yet they had to offload them and verify if they had the right number of kits before loading them again for their distribution.
“I am aware of the delay but it emerged from headquarters. We had to offload the materials, verify them before distributing them but we shall consider voters who will be at the polling stations by 4:00PM to vote in case they will be in the queue,” Mwaita said.
However, Kyalya suffered a setback after the biometric system rejected her National identity card indicating that she was not a registered voter from Jinja district.
She insisted to have her thumb print but this never yielded results, leading her to conclude that the system was a deliberate move aimed at rigging votes.
She later asked the polling officials to check her name in the voters register where she is number two and this is when the exercise began and urged her voters to be very assertive by not accepting to be sent away over such incidents.
Kyalya asked Kiggundu to ensure that he compensates the time wasted by letting all the voters who would be in the queue by 4:00pm, the mandatory time for closing the polls to vote.
Asked if she would respect the outcome of the polls, Kyalya said she was optimistic that she would respect the voters’ choice and work with whoever they would have voted.
She also asked president Museveni to accept defeat in case in case he loses.
“It is good that president Museveni accepted to be my adviser when I go through but in case he is defeated by Besigye or Amama, let him allow any of them take over,” she urged.
Kyalya votes for NRM Woman MP Candidate
Much as she was silent on the directly elected legislator for Jinja West, Kyalya voted for the Jinja district NRM woman flag bearer Loy Katali.
Katali is facing four candidates including the incumbent, Agnes Nabirye whom she trounced in the party primaries.
Others in the woman race are Hadija Namubiru (FDC), Hellen Kwagala (DP), Josephine Nambooze (Go forward) and Annet Musika (independent).
“I believe Katali has the capacity among the candidates to lead Jinja and that is why I have entrusted her,” she said.
