NRM lauds creation of special register for PWDs for 2021 elections

The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has described the decision by the Electoral Commission to create a separate register for the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) because it will help cure the forgeries that have been marring the interest groups’ elections.

Identifying the PWDs in their respective villages for purposes of compiling their own register is being done concurrently with the verification of the National Voters’ Register, an exercise the EC is conducting this week.

NRM’s National Treasurer General, Ms Rose Namayanja told press at a conference that was held at the party headquarters in Kampala yesterday, that during elections for interest groups, the competing political parties face a challenge of identifying PWDs from the general register.

“We have been having the Persons With Disabilities Act, the Youth Council Act, and, the National Women’s’ Act. So, we have been carrying out elections for these structures within government but it has always been easy for women and youth because their register is easily extracted from the National Register” Ms Namayanja said.

She said that without a specific register for the PWDs, many people whose disabilities do not meet the specifications set out in Section 2 of the Persons With Disability Act, 2006 have been participating in the elections which makes the exercise chaotic.

NRM as a party, Ms Namayanja said, has been having separate registers for interest groups and the elections for different league leaders have been conducted smoothly.

“The reason why we are taking particular interest in this ( the identification of PWDs at village level) is that the Electoral Commission informed us that on several occasions they have had people participate in PWDs elections when they are not,” she added.

According to the law, one is deemed to be a PWD if he or she is having; physical, intellectual, sensory or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of an individual.
PWDs have elected their leadership for structures from village to national level and they are represented in Parliament and Local Government Councils.

Ms Namayanja also argued the NRM members across the country to fully participate in the verification of voters’ register exercise so that they are sure of where they will vote from in the 2021 general elections as the party seeks to remain in power for the sixth term.

Asked about the status of the NRM party’s national register, Ms Namayanja revealed that since 2015 there has been an e-data base that will also be updated ahead of conducting internal primary elections next year.

UTILITY
Much as the PWDs will have a separate register, it will only work while conducting interest group polls but they individuals will still remain part of the National register for the purposes of general elections.