Police beef  up security in Serere by-election

The East Kyoga police have termed the ongoing deployment of its officers in Serere County ahead of today’s by-election as an initiative aimed at ensuring a smooth exercise.

Mr Oscar Ageca, the police spokesperson for East Kyoga, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the deployment of police is not going to cause any interruption in the voting process.

“We commend the process of campaigns, there is no need for panic, some of the equipment here is police communication masts because the network here is poor,” he said.

However, this newspaper came across a number of uniformed police officers on motorbikes patrolling the constituency, while others spent a night at Serere District headquarters waiting for deployment at 138 polling stations.

The Alliance for National Transformation candidate, Ms Alice Alaso, said the deployment of uniformed police personnel and the army is aimed at intimidating voters.  She said the EC should be a neutral player in the by-election, and “should ensure that the people’s voice is allowed to have resonance by keeping off security from facilitating a [purported] rigging process’’.

Ms Alaso has rallied the people of Serere County to vote and ensure they protect their ballots from any rigging machinery.

Mr Emmanuel Eratu, the FDC candidate, said elections shouldn’t be treated as a war zone, but “rather an exercise which should be held in a peaceful environment”.

“I will be casting my vote at Acilo Township Primary School. I appeal to all people of Serere County to be steadfast, remain firm and confident, and guard their votes,” he said.

Mr Martin Onguruco, an independent candidate, equally expressed his dissatisfaction over the deployment.

Mr Onguruco further claimed that his last campaign rallies were disorganised by President Museveni, who held his rally with the NRM candidate at a venue designated for him.  “I communicated to the EC about the matter, but no action was taken against the NRM camp,’’  he said.

However, Ms Sylvia Cheptegei, the returning officer for EC Serere, said the President is the fountain of honour and his presence doesn’t change the EC election process. Ms Cheptegei said the aggrieved candidate still had other spaces within Ocaapa Town Council where he would have held his last rallies. 

Justice Simon Byabakama, the chairperson of EC, while addressing stakeholders yesterday, said they expect all election observers to have EC accreditations.