Makerere students to vote for guild leaders on Friday

A total of nine students have expressed their interest to contest in Makerere University 89th guild presidential elections slated for Friday.
At first, the elections had attracted 11 aspirants before the disqualification of the two from National Unity Platform (NUP); Ms Margret Nattabi and Mr Sulaiman Namwoza, who are accused of holding an illegal guild presidential debate at Mitchell Hall on the night of April 5, in which one Robert Sserunjogi, a second year student from the College of Natural Science, was severely injured.
The nine guild aspirants in the race who will appear on the ballot paper tomorrow include; Sabiiti Akankunda, Julius Birigwa, Robert Maseruka, Baraka Nkoyooyo, Oremo Odwee, Mark Ssebunya,  Andrew Lubinga, Evans Murungi and Emmanuel Wanyama.
According to the chairperson of the electoral commission, Mr Levi Tshilumba, over 10,000 voters have been registered in the system.
“We are more than ready to conduct these elections and we do have all the necessary requirements, Mr Tshilumba said during a press conference on Thursday at the University.
Mr Tshilumba also reechoed that all activities in the forthcoming elections, including campaigns, debates, voting, and tallying, are conducted virtually as it was gazetted in the new Makerere Student’s Guild Statute 2022, which was drafted by the university council on September 16, 2022.
The voting shall open at 8:00am and close at 5:00pm tomorrow on the polling day
The guild electoral commission shall tally and announce electoral results and each candidate shall be allowed a maximum of one polling agent at the centre where final results will be declared.
This is not the first time the university is conducting virtual elections. The university has previously staged two virtual guild elections on in 2020 and 2021 but those elections were occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, however the 88th guild elections and the forthcoming ones are squarely down following the death of a Betungura Bewatte, a second year law student at Uganda Christian University, who was stabbed in a scuffle during the last day of the campaigns.
 Mr Tshilumba said like the 88th elections, Students will use Makerere Wi-Fi and those outside the campus will use their data to cast their vote because it not costly.
He further said they will not allow any candidate to stand under any political party as this would lead to automatic disqualification.
Last year, the university registered over 10,000 votes who participated in virtual guild elections compared to 5000 voters who had been participating in physical voting. 
However, there were also glitches in the system as some students raised complaints that they could try multiple times to cast their votes and others failed to vote due to system failure. The chairperson of electoral commission has assured that all shortcomings had been are sorted and the elections will be conducted smoothly this time.
The candidates seek to replace the outgoing 88th guild president, Mr Lawrence Alionzi.