The Electoral Commission has this afternoon clarified on the issue of the presidential elections results. Previously, the opposition supporters had alleged that the results from all cast votes overshot the 100% mark to 103%.
In reaction to their misinformation, the Electoral Commission Spokesperson Paul Bukenya informed the electorate that all the invalid votes were excluded from the final percentage after tallying.
“The general public should note that the number of votes cast in favour of a particular candidate always does not include the votes deemed invalid and as such do not add up to the total overall percentage after tallying,” Bukenya said.
Bukenya added, “The explanation is contained in Section 57(4). This particular sections talks of number of votes cast in favour of a candidate (this excludes invalids). We include invalids under total votes cast.”
In the concluded presidential elections, results showed that Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni, the National Resistance Movement candidate had won the election with over 58% of the votes followed by National Unity Party’s Robert Kyagulanyi who came second with 34%. The head of state race had a total of 11 candidates.
The clarification from the Electoral Commission this afternoon comes on the heels of complaints from mainly opposition candidate supporters who alleged that the EC’s calculations were not adding up after total tallying.
In the final tallying, the results indicated that President Museveni maintained the 58% while Robert Kyagulanyi shoot up to 35%.
Earlier, EC had been criticized for excluding over 1000 polling stations’ results while announcing for the victor.
But EC explained that the declaration met the legal requirements of Section 57(4) of the Presidential Elections Act, which provides that a candidate shall be declared as President if he/she has obtained more than fifty percent (50%) of the valid votes cast at the election.
