NEWS EDITOR
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JUST a day to January 14th 2021 General elections, dirty games intending to influence election results have started.
Masaka district is in spotlight after opposition Democratic Party treasurer money magnet Mary Babirye Kabanda is said to be in bed with ruling NRM’s Robert Asiimwe who is contesting for MP Kimanya-Kabonera against NUP’s Dr. Abed Bwanika. Babirye Kabanda is Masaka woman MP and also doubles as DP treasurer. She is said to have borrowed Norbert Mao’s DP about Shs 700M to buy party headquarters @Balintuma in Mengo. In fact that is why she is too close to Mao and chose to open a war against all Masaka MPs who defected from DP to NUP.
What the two, Babirye Kabanda and Robert Asiimwe are chasing after would definitely leave many unanswered questions in opposition at a time when another DP MP candidate for Mityana Municipality Abraham Luzzi defected to President Museveni’s camp and is now kicking NUP’s Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, left, right and centre.
For starters, DP’s Luzzi was paid by President Museveni’s blue eyed boy Balaam Barugahare to go and disorganise opposition camp in Mityana.
Luzzi confessed to having received this money and these last campaign days, he has been seen campaigning for President Museveni.
Insiders say, Babirye and Asiimwe are cooking up something that is feared to be involving Masaka district EC returning officer a one Agaba.
Those in the race against Babirye Kabanda and Asiimwe must watch the two with a very sharp eye.
It’s not known whether that juicy deal the three; EC’s Agaba, Babirye Kabanda and Asiimwe are allegedly chasing involves huge sums of money since Kabanda is known to splash cash like a Bank owner.
Our footsoldiers in Masaka have cited a one Musinguzi who is acting as a broker between the three.
Could it be about the final results which will be declared by this very returning officer Agaba? Some sources say, about three days ago, a top security chief in Masaka met polling assistants and gave them orders. A day later, Babirye Kabanda, Robert Asiimwe and Sarah Kiyimba allegedly met with presiding officers at Sarah’s mum home to seal the deal. Yesterday, Lwasa is said to have held a meeting wI think polling assistants and there are fears that he might have given them codes.
In such elections, there has been reports of some candidates cutting deals with returning officers and Electoral commission has on many occasions sent warning bells to their staff.
Featuring on KSTV recently, EC Spokesman Paul Bukenya said some malpractices in the election process are engineered by incompetence of some EC staff but warned that if any one is caught, he or she will face it rough.
He said, “Yes we have reports that some of our people involve themselves in vote rigging. EC has no place for such undisciplined staff. Any one caught, will pay for his sins.”
There is a tendency amongst some contestants to influence returning officers to change results and be declared winners.
“You find a candidate who brags around that he will be declared the winner by the returning officer whether he genuinely wins or not. It is sad to note that a big number of contestants even in this election have banked their winning on returning officers. EC must watch out. Names of some returning officers have been read out in such bad deals.” Said a source.
Babirye Kabanda is facing a tight race with NUP’s iron lady Juliet Kakande for Masaka woman MP while Asiimwe is having sleepless nights over NUP’s Dr. Abed Bwanika’s dominance in Kimanya-Kabonera.
Last opinion polls put Dr. Abed Bwanika in the driver’s seat showing that he is the favourite Kimanya-Kabonera MP.
