Internet shutdown stalls digital campaigning, electoral observers say  

The recent shutdown of Internet by the government for five days during the presidential and parliament election greatly affected the voter digital campaigns and mobilization, the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) has said.

Ms Charity Ahimbisibwe, the executive director of CCEDU, said most youth who are more than 65 per cent of Uganda’s population engage mostly on social media using different social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram.

“It is unfortunate that most youth who mainly use the internet for communication, and scores of others were greatly affected by the shutdown of the internet,” she said.

Addressing the press in Muyenga, Kampala, Ms Ahimbisibwe said many voters were left out after the shutdown. She said the “Mulembe Gwa Digito campaign” that CCEDU had launched in December, just 40 days to polling date was further hampered by the lockdown.

CCEDU developed a voter mobilization campaign dubbed Mulembe Gwa Digital, Beera Mu Class to engage the youth through ways that appeal to them. 

The campaign is meant to hook the youth and women to the elections and encourage them to turn up to vote in big numbers.

Uganda Communications Commission ordered all telecommunication firms to shut down all social media platforms just a few hours before Ugandans headed to the polls on January 14 2021.

Ms Ahimbisibwe said since its launch in December they had managed to access about 1,000 youths from Makerere, Mukono, Gulu and Mbarara universities.

“We also mobilized through online and zoom meetings youths, students and hundreds of community members surrounding the universities where we held meetings.”

She described the voter turn-out as very dismal compared to the 2016 voter turnout.  President Museveni, incumbent and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Party candidate won for the sixth term with 5, 851,037 votes representing 58.64 per cent of the total votes cast.

National Unity Platform flag bearer, Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu garnered 3, 475, 298 votes representing 34.83 per cent of the votes. A total of 11 presidential candidates took part in this year’s presidential elections.

Others were FDCs Patrick Oboi Amuriat, Norbert Mao (Democratic Party), Gen. Mugisha Muntu (Alliance for National Transformation), Gen. Henry Tumukunde (Independent) and Joseph Kabuleta.

Also in the race were Nancy Kalembe (Only lady in the race), John Katumba, Willy Mayambala, and Fred Mwesigye.

According to Justice Simon Byabakama, the Uganda Electoral Commission chairperson, a total of 9,978,093 Ugandans voted out of the registered 18.1 million voters.

CCEDU executive director said the fact that more than 7 million Ugandans didn’t or refused to vote shows that the civic and voter education is still lacking.

“As CCEDU we managed to traverse Busoga, Bukedi, Elgon, Teso, Karamoja, Mbarara, Acholi and Central Uganda, but the time of the UN Women supported Omulembe Gwa Digito wasn’t sufficient,” she said.

She said the three month project was started after reports emerged that the youth and women in Uganda have been marginalized, stereotyped and relegated to spectator positions in political activities.

“They (youth and women) have been stigmatized as ‘bandits and wrong doers’ during elections and political peak seasons and while this applies to male youth, the female youth have not been spared by sexist tendencies and being ‘closed out’ from key spaces for participation through fear, monetization and demobilization based on some gender dimensions like ones marital status among others,” she said.

She explained that the 2021 Electoral processes have seriously undermined the participation of young people who have largely been labeled as destructive.

The campaign is largely through technology, language and images (visual/audio). The campaign utilizes peer-to-peer communication across multi–media platforms to speak emotively and influence young people positively to appreciate, participate and engage in the 2021 elections.

Dr Miria Matembe, the CCEDU Board Chairperson urged the youth to stand out and embrace the Omulembe Gwa Digito describing it as a major tool in the prevention of the COVID19 pandemic.