By George Bukenya
The Democratic Front (DF) has rejected the recently concluded presidential and parliamentary election results announced by the Electoral Commission alleging huge widespread irregularities that the party leaders say undermined the credibility of the entire electoral process.
Speaking to the media at the party headquarters in Namirembe, Rubaga Division, and DF’s President Mathius Mpuuga Nsamba accused the Electoral Commission of organizing what he referred to as a flawed and fraudulent election.
He mentioned a deliberate move by EC to fail out the biometric voter verification machines to aid rigging for the ruling party, voters’ intimidation, and military harassment, bribery, and falsification of results as issues that compromised the results outcome.
According to Mpuuga, these irregularities rendered the elections “shoddy and fake,” and he stated that the party completely rejects the outcome.
“As DF, we are consulting our lawyers and our parliamentary candidates to see how we can challenge this unlawful exercise conducted by the Electoral Commission,’’ Mpuuga said.
Mpuuga further said that the party’s failure to secure representation in the next Parliament was a result of deliberate sabotage involving the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and certain opposition parties which he declined to mention under camera.
He also claimed that several DF candidates won their respective races but were denied victory after their results were altered and not officially declared by the Electoral Commission.
Mpuuga revealed that the party has constituted a team of legal experts to analyze the reported electoral irregularities and advise on the appropriate legal and political course of action.
Despite the electoral setback, Mpuuga reaffirmed the party’s commitment to its political agenda. He said the Democratic Front will focus on strengthening its grassroots structures and investing time in recruiting, training, and mobilizing young men and women to actively participate in country’s political lands.
The party’s publicity secretary Moses Kasibante said that the party fielded a total of 88 candidates and of these 90% became runners-up and to him this was also victory in itself given the period his party has been in existence.
He said they are going now to work relentlessly to see that in the next elections they win not only parliamentary seats by even the big seat.