UGANDA'S FLAWED ELECTIONS: Observers look at credibility of the polls

108. Because of the special characteristics of the act of voting in the multiple box system, we paid special attention to the privacy of polling booths during our visits to polling stations and discussions with voters on the question of the secrecy of the poll. Although there were some polling booths where the degree of privacy was less than we would have wished, in the very great majority a voter could cast his ballot in complete secrecy. More importantly, we found that the electorate as a whole was convinced that voting would indeed be secret.

109. Prior to the commencement of the poll, we had expressed reservations about the degree of training polling staff had received. We were delighted to have our fears confounded for the most part. Although in some polling stations a combination of inexperience, incompetence and sheer nervousness hindered the efficient processing of voters, in the great majority of polling stations polling staff displayed not only competence and sustained concentration, but also flair and imagination.

Loopholes
For example, a large number of presiding officers found themselves inappropriately equipped to discharge their functions. Those without validating stamps either perforated voters' registration cards with a punch or made a tear to show that they had been used. Party posters were substituted on ballot boxes for official labels when these were missing. Few of the polling stations had sufficient official labels for one to be placed inside each box as well as on the outside as a protection against the switching of labels.

To overcome this party agents placed appropriately worded slips of paper inside the boxes. Those without ink pads for their stamps improvised by inserting cardboard or rags dipped in indelible ink.

Where seals were missing, the keys of padlocks were entrusted to the respective party polling agents and where ballot boxes had not been inscribed with serial numbers, the serial numbers on their padlocks were often recorded.

110. This happy spirit of enterprise and co-operation between polling staff and party agents redeemed many of the other deficiencies and provided re-assurance regarding the integrity of the poll as a whole.

111. Polling stations were located in a variety of settings. Some were in schools, some in government offices, some in the open air.
Some were sheltered under verandahs, some under 'thatched canopies. A number of' polling stations we visited were ill-suited for the people at the rate required. Some used the entrance door also as an exit.

Others had the ballot boxes in a separate room with two doors so that a person waiting to enter the room to vote had no idea how long he should wait or whether the person ahead of him had long since left the booth. In one polling station voters had to use a window as their exit. Despite physical difficulties, the voting proceeded surprisingly smoothly.

112. On the whole intelligent use was made of the space available and the rate at which voters were processed again proved our earlier fears unjustified.

113. Overshadowing all else on 10 December was unpardonable and inexcusable delay in the opening of many polling stations, most conspicuously around Kampala. This was repeated, but was more understandable, in areas further afield. In Mbarara voting proceeded, when it finally got under way in the afternoon, on the basis of the provisional registers as copies of the official register proved unavailable. It is nonetheless a fact that many polling stations opened at about the appointed hour.

114. The confusion which marked the early hours of the poll in many districts constrasted with the demeanour of the voters themselves.
They turned out in very great numbers at dawn and waited with admirable patience and, at times, resignation, but always with dignity, to exercise the right they had been denied for a generation.

One voter, who had been in line for 16 hours to vote without food or other refreshment, simply commented "16 hours is not very long when you have already been waiting for almost 20 years". Particularly poignant was the sight of mothers with young babies who, like others, had gone to polling stations expecting to be able to vote promptly and return home.

115. The patience and forbearance of the voters were testimony to the depth of their dedication to the democratic process.
116. As we travelled from polling station to polling station on the morning of 10 December we were struck by the emptiness of the streets of cities and villages alike. All were deserted in favour of the hive of activity around the polling stations.

117. We were moved by the warmth of the welcome accorded us wherever we went and by the degree of co-operation extended to us by presiding officers and their staff. None of us will ever forget the affection and trust we were privileged to receive. 118. It was clear beyond doubt that the populace at large was voting in an atmosphere devoid of coercion and intimidation, and were doing so freely and in assured secrecy for the candidates of their choice. As mentioned earlier, this was facilitated in large measure by the decision of the Military Commission to confine the Army to its barracks and to remove road blocks. The size of the turnout belied any suggestion that people were unable to exercise their franchise freely.

Turnout great
119. Indeed, so great was the turnout everywhere that in one polling station"in Mpigi, .the presiding officer when presenting details of the count to the returning officer also handed him a list of those on his register who had not voted together with reasons illness, absence, demise etc. - why they had not been able to. Deliberate abstention appeared to be singularly absent.