Prisons staff trained to pack voting materials 

The Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday commenced a two-day training for 400 prisons staff who will be packing election materials.

The prisons staff will be trained in basic skills for packing polling kits and management at the Uganda Prisons Training Academy Luzira.

Mr Ibrahim Kakembo, the EC acting principal election officer, who led a team of other senior election officers to train the prisons staff, said the commission will engage their own personnel and others drawn from Uganda Prisons Service, Uganda Police and casual labourers.

“Polling materials constitute all the necessary tools used to facilitate the process of casting votes and declaration of results at a polling station. They include ballot boxes, ballot papers, voters register, election forms and guidelines, among others,” he said.

Mr Geravas Tumuhimbise, the Commissioner for Prisons in charge of general administration and social welfare, who is also in charge of the election roadmap at the Uganda Prisons Service, cautioned the trainees against indiscipline.

“Discipline is doing the right thing at the right time and at the right place,” he said.

Reason

Mr Paul Bukenya, the EC spokesperson, siad they are engaging prisons officers because they are among the disciplined staff the commission usually works with when it comes to packing election materials.  He said by end of December, all the polling materials will be ready except a few such as declaration of results forms and the ballot papers.

“We have all the generic materials such as ink pads, aprons used at the polling station except ballot papers, the voters register and declaration of results forms, the pens, strings and all the critical materials needed at the polling station,” he said, adding that by end of December, all the other materials must be packed.

Mr Bukenya said they had already dispatched the EC team to supervise the printing of ballot papers at printers abroad but they have not yet received names of representatives of political parties for accreditation to participate in the exercise.

Mr Frank Baine, the Prisons spokesperson, said since Independence, Prisons has been the custodian of polling materials including ballot boxes, which are kept with them before being taken to polling stations on the voting day.

“It has been a tradition since independence that Prisons keeps the ballot boxes when they are still sealed. Even during the first election, the sealed ballot boxes were under the custody of prisons,” he said.