----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Ssemakula <james_ssemak...@yahoo.com>
To: buganda...@listserv.tamu.edu
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 8:22 PM
Subject: Wikileaks: ALLEGATIONS OF "GHOST" VOTERS HAUNT

Viewing cable 09KAMPALA1323, UGANDA: ALLEGATIONS OF "GHOST" VOTERS HAUNT
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Reference ID
Created
Released
Classification
Origin
09KAMPALA1323  2009-11-17 06:30  2011-08-30 01:44  CONFIDENTIAL  Embassy 
Kampala  VZCZCXRO9945
RR RUEHRN RUEHROV
DE RUEHKM #1323/01 3210630
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 170630Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY KAMPALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1953
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GEC O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 
KAMPALA 001323 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2019 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KCOR UG SUBJECT: UGANDA: ALLEGATIONS OF "GHOST" VOTERS HAUNT 
ELECTORAL COMMISSION 
 
REF: A. KAMPALA 01166 ¶B. KAMPALA 01196 ¶C. KAMPALA 01275 ¶D. KAMPALA 01278 ¶E. 
KAMPALA 01097 ¶F. KAMPALA 00979 
 
Classified By: Pol/Econ Chief Aaron Sampson for 
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.(C) Summary:  An internal report by the ruling National 
Resistance Movement (NRM) party accuses the Electoral 
Commission of conspiring with opposition leaders to stack 
Uganda's voter registry with "ghost" voters and "phantom" 
villages. 
 The report - commissioned by President Museveni 
and Security Minister Amama Mbabazi, and drafted by Mbabazi's 
daughter Nina - could lead to the dissolution of the 
Electoral Commission (EC), which is regarded by opposition 
parties, civil society, and international donors as favorable 
to the NRM.  The NRM's assessment concludes the EC favors the 
opposition.  On November 11, Nina Mbabazi predicted a massive 
EC shake-up, complained of NRM infighting, and claimed 
Museveni is looking for someone to run in his place as 
President in 2011.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
NRM Declares Open Season on Own Electoral Commission 
--------------------------------------------- ------- ¶2. (SBU) On October 22, 
Uganda's main opposition newspaper 
published excerpts of an internal NRM report accusing core EC 
officials of conspiring with opposition parties to place 
"ghost" voters and "phantom" villages on Uganda's voter 

rolls.  Opposition parties have identified a new EC as a 
prerequisite for their participation in the 2011 elections 
because they view the current EC as pro-NRM (refs. A, B and 
C).  Various iterations of the NRM report accuse the EC of 
placing 500,000 to one million pro-opposition "ghost" voters 
on the voter registry to force the NRM's Presidential 
candidate into a second round election run off in 2011.  The 
report singles out EC Secretary Sam Rwakoojo, Legal Council 
Alfred Okello Oryem, and a handful of mid-level officials for 
corruption, fraud and conflict of interest, and recommends 
firing Rwakoojo "forthwith as he as done the most to damage 
(the) NRM." ¶3. (SBU) Several diplomatic missions subsequently received 
copies of an anonymous letter, allegedly from a disgruntled 
EC accountant, purporting to offer further evidence of 
Rwakoojo and Okello Oryem's misdeeds.  Dated October 26 and 
addressed to Security Minister and NRM Secretary
 General 
Mbabazi, the letter accuses Rwakoojo, Okello Oryem, and EC 
Chairman Badru Kiggundu of conspiring to lose legal cases 
against the EC in order to pocket percentages of court 
ordered payouts to claimants, fixing inflated procurement 
contracts, accepting bribes, and promoting female EC staff 
members in return for sex. 
 
------------------------------------ 
NRM: Voter Registry is Beyond Repair 
------------------------------------ ¶4. (C) Senior NRM officials, including 
Cabinet Minister and 
NRM Chief Whip Daudi Migereko, sought to distance the NRM 
from the internal report following its publication, claiming 
that the document did not represent the views of the NRM.  On 
November 11, however, Minister Mbabazi's daughter Nina 
confirmed to PolOff that President Museveni commissioned the 
report, provided USD 50,000 in funding, and tasked Nina with 
leading a team of 100 NRM "volunteers" to audit both the EC 
and its voter registry.  Nina
 said the EC's incompetence will 
lead to post-election legal challenges that could throw even 
genuinely free and fair election results into doubt.  The NRM 
is particularly fearful of challenges that would accuse the 
EC of preventing eligible Ugandan citizens from casting 
presidential ballots. ¶5. (C) Nina said NRM analysis of the registry's 10.5 
million 
names reveals more than 600,000 repetitions.  Some of these 
"ghost" voters appear as many as 8 to 10 times in the 
register.  She also accused the EC of illegally deleting more 
than 700,000 NRM voter names.  Describing Uganda's existing 
voter registry as beyond repair, she advocated for a massive 
and immediate nation-wide citizenship drive to replace the 
flawed voter register and stave off any potential 
post-election legal challenges based on the question of 
citizenship. ¶6. (C)  The EC has already issued a tender - now suspended 
 
KAMPALA 00001323  002 OF 003 
 
 
(ref. D) - for a USD 15
 million biometric voter ID program. 
Nina dismissed the voter ID program as pointless (because it 
fails to remedy the wider citizenship identity problem), a 
financial waste (because it consumes more than 100% of the 
EC's available funding), and illegal (because the program 
targets not the entire nation but only selected 
municipalities).  She said the NRM has already hired a local 
data entry firm to create a working database of Ugandan 
citizens by reconciling what can be salvaged from the voter 
registry with internal NRM membership records.  The NRM's 
national membership drive recently launched by NRM Secretary 
General Mbabazi (ref. E) is the backbone of Nina Mbabazi's 
"citizen" database. 
 
-------------------------------- 
The End of the EC As We Know It? 
-------------------------------- ¶7. (C) To substantiate her theory that the 
opposition Forum 
for Democratic Change (FDC) party is working with EC officers 
to rig the voter registry,
 Nina unfurled a 2ft by 3ft 
organizational chart of the EC, with the names of each of the 
EC's 80 or so national level employees highlighted in yellow 
for the NRM or blue for the FDC.  According to Nina, only two 
of the EC's six Commissioners support the NRM.  The four 
remaining Commissioners are highlighted blue, along with EC 
Secretary Rwakoojo.  Nina described strident opposition party 
criticism of the EC as "lip service" to instill a "mindset" 
among Ugandans and international donors of an NRM bent on 
rigging the 2011 election.  She added that the NRM has 
"people" inside all the opposition parties and therefore 
knows what opposition parties are doing. ¶8. (C) The word "Change" was scrawled 
in pen beside the names 
of several EC employees on Nina's chart.  She said the NRM 
wants to either fire or reassign these individuals, and 
predicted a vastly different EC by January 2010.  EC 
Secretary Rwakoojo, Chairman Kiggundu, and Legal Council 

Okello Oryem are the most likely to go.  Nina said the NRM 
"will burn down" the EC if Rwakoojo is still Secretary come 
January, and that she would personally light the match. ¶9. (C)  COMMENT: EC 
Chairman Kiggundu, four other 
Commissioners, and Secretary Rwakoojo have all either run for 
office as members of the NRM or worked for the NRM party 
(ref. F). The NRM's conspiracy theory about opposition 
infiltration of the EC seems to have spawned not only a 
skewed vision of the EC, but a network of informants charged 
with ferreting out the personal political sentiments of every 
EC employee.  Asked to explain why her team classified only 
two Commissioners as pro-NRM, Nina admitted that many 
"profiles" were "not the best" because her "profilers" 
incorrectly equated criticism of government corruption with 
being anti-NRM.  Clearly Nina's concern is that NRM EC 
members are not pro-NRM enough.  Ironically, her color coded 
chart reveals a relatively
 balanced EC largely representative 
of the Ugandan electorate as a whole.  END COMMENT. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
Corruption, Infighting and NRM Leadership Disputes 
--------------------------------------------- ----- ¶10. (C) Nina said rampant 
corruption has seriously weakened 
the NRM. She said her father was shocked to discover 
villagers willing to support the NRM but not Museveni during 
his tour of the countryside, and said Ugandans never made 
this distinction before.  She also complained of bitter NRM 
infighting, labeled party members opposed to her research as 
"saboteurs," and accused Museveni's Private Secretary Amelia 
Kyambadde and Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa of conspiring to 
thwart her direct access to the President and to undermine 
her research.  Nina said she angered Kutesa by agitating for 
the removal of 7,000 "ghost" voters from his home 
constituency, and that she personally leaked copies of her 

report to the press to convince local journalists not to 
publish a news story about the Mbabazis planted by Amelia and 
Kutesa. ¶11. (C) Nina said there are "indications" Museveni is tired 
and looking for a trustworthy successor to run in his place 
in 2011, and that her father is the most likely candidate. 
She said Kutesa is not a serious contender and is working to 
sabotage the Mbabazis because he knows his fortunes will 
decline should Mbabazi ever take over.  COMMENT: We have seen 
no indications that Museveni is considering stepping down in ¶2011.  END 
COMMENT 
 
------------------------- 
Comment: As the NRM Turns 
 
KAMPALA 00001323  003 OF 003 
 
 
------------------------- ¶12. (C)  Some "ghost" voters are attributable to 
fraud 
perpetrated by the NRM and opposition parties.  Others are 
the result of inherent bureaucratic mistakes governing the 
management of a list of more than 10 million names.  Instead 
of implementing a transparent
 program to clean up the voter 
registry, the EC embarked on a quixotic biometric voter ID 
program that addresses neither the overall issue of "ghost" 
voters nor the NRM's citizenship concerns.  However, an NRM 
sponsored national "citizen" database using primarily NRM 
membership records will likely yield nothing more than a 
second flawed list of Ugandan voters.  Nina's report will 
likely lead to a dissolution of the EC.  With opposition 
parties, civil society, international donors, and now the NRM 
all publicly questioning the EC's impartiality, it is 
difficult to envision how the EC can operate effectively. 
While all those interested in a free and fair election may 
seek a new EC, without serious changes to the 
constitutionally mandated EC appointment process, any new 
Commissioners selected by President Museveni are liable to be 
equally partisan. 
LANIER

James Ssemakula
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