Prime
Be keen on voters’ register update
Before the 2016 General Elections, many people did not show up to update their names on the national voters’ register.
When the Electoral Commission announced the national voters’ register display exercise, some people took the matter lightly. They argued that they had voted in the previous elections and so their names should be on the voters’ register.
Then on the election day in February 2016, many people were surprised to find their names missing on the register. Their names were missing because a new voters’ register had been generated and produced by the Electoral Commission as mandated by law.
Many Ugandans also found their names missing in the because they did not know that the very information they gave during the registration for the National ID, was the same information that the Electoral Commission used to determine their polling stations.
As a result, some people could not vote because their names were posted to polling stations that were far from where they live.
This was a mistake on the side of the voters because they are the ones who gave the information.
Another challenge was that some names were wrongly spelt during the national ID registration exercise.
Therefore, when time for the National Voters’ update exercise came, the electoral officials considered those who wanted to change their names as cases of impersonation and deleted them from the national voters’ register. Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) has specific examples of where these incidents happened.
This category of voters were also disenfranchised or denied their right to vote because of misspelt names.
Besides, some candidates who stood for elections used their private radio stations to discourage voter’s from participating in the National ID registration process and later the National Voter’s update programme.
Having listened on the radio, some voters ignored this key government processes and subsequently failed to participate in the 2016 electoral process.
Another problematic issue voters encountered was the allegation that the Electoral Commission used NRM cadres in some areas as EC officials to conduct the voter update and display exercises. There were claims that the NRM cadres were recommended for the EC jobs by DISOs and GISOs and at times the RDC.
However, as the EC plans activities around the Voters register update exercise, CCEDU is appealing to the Electoral Commission to investigate such allegations. If found to be true, they should take immediate remedial actions.
Charity K. Ahimbisibwe,
CCEDU, Kampala
