Dokolo by-election: Why 92-year-old man braved scorching sun to vote

Mzee Aloysius Atanga, 92, on March 21 braved the scorching sun and heatwave to cast his vote for a candidate of his choice in the Dokolo District Woman parliamentary by-election. He wanted to vote for a representative who would consider the plight of the vulnerable and older persons.

Walking with the aid of wooden crutches, the resident of Acungapenyi Cell, Central Ward in Dokolo Town Council arrived at Angwecibange Primary School “B” polling station at around 12:30pm.

A male Police Constable at the polling station in the heart of Dokolo Town immediately received him and took him to the polling officials. At this point, his particulars were verified using the bio-metric machine before he was issued a ballot paper.

With the help of a guide, he was taken to a point where a black basin was placed for voters to secretly tick or thumb the candidates of their choice.

Mzee Atanga then placed his thumb print on the ballot paper, took the paper and dropped it in the ballot box.

Unlike hundreds of voters who for one reason or another did not show up at the 173 polling stations scattered across 14 small administrative units in Dokolo District to take part in the by-election, this grandfather sacrificed his time to vote.

He said he wanted to vote for the right District Woman Representative in Parliament who will cause a huge change in the lives of extremely vulnerable individuals including older persons.

“I have already voted for my leader whom I know is going to win. I believe that she is the right candidate to represent the people of Dokolo for effective service delivery,” Mzee Atanga told Monitor after casting his vote on March 21.

Key issues
Poverty level remains high, while literacy level is low in Dokolo with a population of over 200,000 people.

According to National Population and Housing Census (NPHC), 2014,  5,574 (15.7 per cent) males aged 18 years and above are illiterate in Dokolo as well as 19,160 females of the same age bracket (45.8 per cent).

At least 1,416 (4.1 per cent) households in Dokolo have members aged five years and above consuming less than two meals in a day.

Only 1.7 per cent (604) households in the area own a television, while 21,732 households (62.2 per cent) own a bicycle.

At least 1,039 households (3.0 per cent) rely on a community announcer as their main source of information because they don’t own radios (Source: NPHC 2014).

The March 21 by-election, which voters believe is a game changer, was fairly peaceful with a few isolated cases of voter bribery, arrest of leaders of opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, transporting of voters to polling stations and low voter turnout.

At Dokolo Progressive Secondary School polling station where FDC candidate, Dr Rosemary Alwoch voted from, only 23 voters out of 309 had cast their votes by around midday.

At Angwecibange Primary School polling station “C” in Dokolo Town Council, only 50 out of 558 registered voters at this station had voted by 11am. At the neighbouring Angwecibange polling station “B”, 191 out of 876 registered voters including Mzee Atanga had turned up and voted at this particular polling station at around 12:30pm. 

With the absence of the military, the exercise was largely peaceful, according to FDC leader, Mr Patrick Oboi Amuriat.

“Generally, my observation is that voter turn up is still low, and I think something ought to have been done to mobilise the voters to turn up for this by-election,” he said. “The voters themselves are peaceful, there is no disruption yet at polling stations and we are waiting to see whether this situation is going to change.”

Mr Maxwell Akora, Maruzi County Member of Parliament, also a supervisor of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party, said they established that most polling stations in Dokolo Town Council were disorganised.

“Maybe because the presiding officers were either not informed or were playing some games. Actually, we met officials from the Electoral Commission and they also noticed the problem and told us to reorganise the polling stations,” he said.

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