Former Tororo County Member of Parliament Sanjay Tanna, who also contested for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) eastern Uganda vice president in the recently concluded polls has petitioned the party chairman to annul the results of the elections.
Mr Tanna lost the elections to Capt Mike Mukula, the incumbent.
In an August 21 petition to President Museveni, Mr Tanna levelled a litany of accusations against Capt Mukula, including alleged racial profiling.
Mr Dan Meshack Okware, the national coordinator for Mr Tanna’s team, said their candidate has suffered a number of injustices which they reported to the party electoral commission but no action has been taken.
“There is a pending petition dated August 3 which was submitted to the NRM electoral commission where our candidate was a subject of racial ridicule by candidate Mukula. This continued throughout the campaign both in his meetings and media briefings, including his official twitter and Facebook pages,” Mr Okware said in the petition.
“Our candidate continued to suffer all sort of malignment that he was being funded by the Indian community against the sovereignty of Uganda. We strongly believe that the racial card played by Mr Mukula against our candidate did disadvantage him in the eyes his would be supporters..,” he added.
Mr Okware claimed the elections were marked by fraud, inconsistencies and other malpractices.
Disputed results
“By copy of this letter, we would like to request that you authorise the electoral commission to release copies of the camera footages and the copies of resolutions. You will establish that in many cases voters that were never the genuine delegates in many of the districts where Mukula is purported to have won the elections,” the petition adds.
The petitioner alleges that while Tana emerged the winner in the Eastern region with over 75 per cent votes, Buganda sub-region voted for Mukula and therefore decided against the wishes and aspirations of eastern region.
We consider it unfair that as a region we will be represented by a person whom we voted against. It means we have been denied a chance to determine our representation but rather it is being decided by others,” the complaint says.
The petitioners also say there was delay in submitting the election results from Eastern Uganda, which they claim were doctored.
“You will note that all other candidates had their results declared by around midnight while those our candidate were declared following day at 2pm,” they add.
Party speaks out
Mr Farouk Kirunda, the NRM party national spokesperson, did not respond to how the chairman’s office will handle the petition. But the NRM secretariat, however, says the party will handle the issues to the best of their ability.
Mr Emmanuel Dombo, the NRM director for information and publicity, said while he has not seen a copy of the petition, he is quite sure if the party receives it, the issue will be handled conclusively.
He, however, wondered how the team would petition the party when Mr Tanna himself had already congratulated Capt Mukula.
“He was on the television and I saw him congratulating Mukula. I am not sure whether his petition is to have the results cancelled, or to ensure that the issues that happened in the elections should not be repeated. If he brought the issue for arbitration, we shall handle it and ensure that they are resolved, but if he wants the results annulled, we will study it and give all the attention it deserves,” Dombo said.
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