Why EC extended voter registration

The Electoral Commission has given a five-day extension for the national voter registration and update exercise.
The initial deadline was December 11 which has now been extended to December 16.

According to EC, the extension was granted because some obstructions impeded the exercise.

“The heavy rain experienced countrywide, shortage of registration equipment in the field, uneven distribution of officials in some parishes which are big and some places that are hard to reach,” the EC chairman, Justice Simon Byabakama, said yesterday.

He said they had also received some reports from the updating officials with reasons that deemed it fit to extend the exercise.
“We have been following all complaints and we came to this conclusion given the current weather in the country and other impending issues. We shall make sure the process is done within the days we have given and close it finally,” Justice Byabakama said.

Initially, the EC had given the exercise 21 days but this was highly contested by different political parties and the public, saying the time was not enough, especially for people who move long distances to update their particulars.

EC said they had rolled out a team of 22,630 staff to handle the exercise in 10,011 parishes in the 135 districts contained in the commission’s database.

However, a few days into the exercise, the EC officials decried low turnout of citizens for the exercise, saying only the elderly had given it priority, especially during working days.

At some registration centres Daily Monitor visited last week, reports indicated that only about 50 people or below had been registered.
On the low turnout, Justice Byabakama said: “This exercise is for the new people registering. If you voted in the last general election, there is no need to verify and this might explain the low turnout. But we are urging people to cross-check before they are disappointed on the last minute, they have the last chance.”

Mr Crispin Kaheru, the former coordinator of Citizen Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda, welcomed the extension, saying insufficient enrolment kits and staff and occasionally defective enrolment equipment, the rains and floods had distorted the conduct of the exercise in some parts of the country.

Meanwhile EC also noted that they had received complaints of some updating officials and other local leaders extorting money from the people to have their voter information transferred from one polling station to another.
“We condemn this and if any official is reported to us, we shall take action against them because we pay these officials everyday they appear in the field,” Justice Byabakama said.

The process of updating the register will be followed by the compilation of the voter’s registers for the Youth, People with Disabilities, older persons, workers, army and professional bodies.

The EC yesterday said they asked for a supplementary budget of Shs280b for the exercise since the money they had estimated to fund the activities will not be enough.

The total budget for the 2021 General Election was estimated at Shs868.14b.

Political parties’ take

Many political parties insisted the days given for the exercise are few since the number of people who would attain the voting age before 2021 need to be considered. The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party deputy secretary general, Mr Harold Kaija, said the days were not enough because many Ugandans will be denied the right to vote by 2021.

Mr Rogers Mulindwa, NRM secretariat spokesperson: “We would have appreciated more days because given the weather and many other factors this time is not enough but it is at least better than nothing.

Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, People Power spokesperson: “The time is still not enough but we shall go with that and we add our voice to the voters that they continue to go to the verification centres and see if they are on the registers.”
Mr Jimmy Akena, president of Uganda Peoples Congress: “We need more time but we also need more civic education. We have seen that there is a low turnout because people do not understand what exactly is taking place.”

Mr Paul Kakande, Democratic Party spokesperson: “EC is confusing people, it looks like the citizens are registering for voting twice. When people were asked to register for National IDs they were told that this information would be used during voting so EC should get it from NIRA. The days are not enough and EC also knows that.”

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