Andante Okanya
9 November 2009
Kampala — THE Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) wants a parliamentary select committee to investigate allegations of ghosts on the national voters' register.
This follows recent press reports that an NRM preliminary report indicated that one million out of the 11 million registered voters were non-existent.
It also reportedly found more than 5,000 ghost polling stations.
Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, the chairperson of the party, said the NRM should not carry out the probe because it is a national issue that calls for transparency.
"It should be a parliamentary select committee that should investigate this issue. Otherwise, the whole thing will lose meaning," Bidandi said.
He was speaking at the party's press conference in Kampala yesterday.
Bidandi said all stakeholders, including the opposition, must be part of the probe.
According to a statement from David Alira Opii, the party's secretary general, Ugandans should be cautious on issue of the ghost voters.
The statement added that it could be an attempt by the NRM to eliminate opposition supporters.
"The People's Progressive Party believes that the so-called discovery of one million ghost voters is a ploy by the President and the NRM to condition the minds of Ugandans so that when they come up with a fresh register, they will claim that it is the one free of the one million ghost names," the statement said.
The party said in Rakai and Ibanda districts, NRM cadres were going around villages with copies of the voters register to identify NRM supporters.
The party also wants the opposition to come up with a single election monitoring unit to ensure that the national register is not tampered with.
However, the Electoral Commission has denied the existence of ghost voters.
Chairman Badru Kiggundu recently said the number of registered voters was 10.5 million and the number of polling stations was 19,000.
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