The Uganda Electoral Commission has handed over all certified copies of the declaration of results forms, the tally sheets and return forms for the 2016 Presidential elections to Amama Mbabazi’s lawyers.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Electoral Commission to produce scanned copies of the declaration of results (DR) forms used to declared results of the presidential election at the National Tally Centre at Namboole Stadium.
This followed lawyer Enos Tumusiime’s submission that vote counting, tallying and declaration of presidential elections results by the Commission complied with the law.
In a brief statement on Friday morning, EC Spokesperson Jotham Taremwa said the body had complied with the court’s directive.
He said the documents “have been delivered to the offices of Dr. Akampurira (Amama Mbabazi’s) legal counsel this morning. The evidence is hereby provided.”
EC’s lawyer Okello Oryem told court yesterday that candidates’ agents were free to cross-check and compare the tallied results but unfortunately Mbabazi did not have the agents.
“The only way agents can protect the interests of the candidate at district tally centers and national tally centers is if they are in possession of results at polling stations. He did not comply with the law by not deploying agents to protect his interest and he hurt himself,” Oryem argued.
“He had two agents at the national tally centre but these never said they had declaration of results forms which means they could not protect his interests. They were incompetent.”
On Mbabazi claiming that the Electoral Commission was concealing something by not showing where the results read at the national tally centre were coming from, the lawyers said there was nothing to hide as everything was done in public.
“Agents are ears and eyes of the presidential candidate and if they are absent, you can’t blame anyone. The concealment has not been proved and I pray it is disregarded,” Okello added.