Ugandan Election Commission rejected the allegations that it allowed pre-ticketed ballots for the ruling party, head of commission said Wednesday here, less than 24 hours before the first-ever multi-party elections to be held.

As the major rival of the ruling National Resistance Movement ( NRM) led by President Yoweri Museveni, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) claimed this week the electoral body was conniving to give pre-ticketed ballots to the NRM for stuffing in ballot boxes on polling day.

"While we regret these unsubstantiated allegations, we would also like to inform the country that there are on ballot papers in the hands of individual EC staff, political party, candidate or indeed anybody else." Badru M. Kiggundu, the chairman of the Commission said at a briefing in the Mandela National Stadium.

The one day polling on Thursday, from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm at some 19,000 polling sites throughout the country, is to yield the new district and national parliament as well as the president under the review of some 400 election monitors.

The incumbent Moseveni is seeking a third five year term in the race of which he is widely expected to win among five candidates. The final result will come out within two days after the polling.

Election officials warned any dispute over the poll results be solved in the legal way, though they stressed that the elections were better prepared than those in 2001 when corruption and rigging allegations flew around.

Source: Xinhua