Does Aruu by-election signal fresh start for Electoral Commission?

The “new” Electoral Commission (EC) passed the first electoral test since being handed the mantle to lead the electoral body with observers and analysts opining that they held a much better organised by-election in Aruu North County than has been witnessed in the past.
The Aruu North County by-election was the first election to be organised by the Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama led EC which replaced the Dr Badru Kiggundu-led one in November, 2016. Justice Byabakama was on the ground to personally oversee the exercise.
EC announced Independent candidate Lucy Aciro Otim as the winner of the election having fended off competition from five other candidates in the race, including the ruling NRM’s James Nabinson Kidega who came in second place. Although Independent, Ms Aciro was backed by Opposition party Forum for Democratic Change.
Ms Aciro garnered 16,608 votes (63.36 per cent), almost twice the number of Mr Kidega’s 8,450 votes (32.75 per cent). Mr Bernard Ology Obina of the Democratic Party polled 411 votes (1.59 per cent). Mr David Ojera got 54 votes [0.21 per cent], Mr Justin Boswell Oryema polled 173 (0.67 per cent) votes while Mr Henry Komakech Banya got 108 votes (0.42 per cent).
For matters within its control and beyond, the EC has previously received bashing for failing to deliver credible elections in the country. Three Supreme Court rulings (2001, 2006 and 2016) have faulted the electoral body and called for reforms in electoral management in the country.
Coming from the Court of Appeal—the highest appellate court for parliamentary election petitions—Justice Byabakama and his team could have reflected, particularly, on the Supreme Court recommendations in the 2016 presidential election petition.
On election day, the commission – which was unable to deliver voting materials on time in many parts of Kampala and Wakiso districts in the last general election – managed to dispatch polling materials as early as 4am from the Pader District EC office to the seven sub-counties of Aruu North, according observers.
Dispatch of voting materials has in the past bedevilled the electoral body and contributed to many problems on polling day, including potential voters getting frustrated with the exercise.
“By 5:30am, all the materials had left Pader for the sub-counties of Atanga, Pajule, Latanya, Laguti, Acholi-Bur, Lapul and Angagura. I had not observed such efficiency by the Electoral Commission in a while,” says Crispin Kaheru, the coordinator of Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda whose team monitored the election.
Mr Kaheru, however, in a preliminary report about the exercise, says some polling stations did not receive materials in time or had other technicalities prevent commencement of polling by 7am as stipulated in the law.
“Some of the stations delayed to begin polling because the five registered voters required to be present before the opening of the polling kit were not yet present. This occurrence happened in a number of polling stations – especially in Latanya Sub-county,” he said.
“In other cases, the polling officials had just not yet received the polling materials – these were, however, few cases recorded in Latanya too.”
Unlike in previous by-elections such as in Luweero where voters had to wait for much of the night to get results, the electoral body was able to tally the results from the 95 polling stations in the rural constituency and declare the winner on time.
For a constituency of such a size, you would be sure to receive all the returns to the tally centre any time after midnight, from the closure of voting at 4pm. But by 10:30pm, the Electoral Commission had all the results from every polling station in the constituency and was able to announce the final results.
But EC spokesperson Jotham Taremwa in an interview, said there was nothing extraordinary the commission had done in the Aruu exercise that they had not done in the past.
“I don’t take compliments of politicians to be very genuine. If a member of the Opposition wins then those on the Opposition think we have done well, the same applies to NRM when they win they think we have done well. Whoever loses thinks we have performed poorly,” he said.
“I don’t know what has changed, the new team is building on the foundation of the old team and when we fail, we assess and improve…” he said.
In the coming days, the EC will once again be in the spotlight on how they organise the elections in Kamuli Municipality and Moroto District. Kamuli Municipality will particularly be an interesting race as FDC’s iron lady Salaamu Musumba squares off with NRM’s Rehema Watongola.
“The way we handled Aruu is how we shall handle the subsequent elections. We shall do our part, we don’t have control over other processes,” he said.

About Aruu North by-election

Aruu North Constituency fell vacant early February after Court of Appeal confirmed the High Court decision which nullified the election of Ms Lucy Aciro Otim, citing noncompliance with the electoral laws.
Ms Aciro garnered 8,599 votes on independent ticket defeating NRM’s Nabinson Kidega (right) by only two votes in the February 2016 parliamentary polls.