EC should throw more light on campaign ban

The Electoral Commission’s suspension of election campaigns in 16 districts and cities has triggered more questions than answers on justification for the ban.

The EC explained that the suspension of campaigns in those districts was based on the grave concern expressed by ministry of Health at the December 23 meeting over the candidates’ and supporters persistent violation of Covid-19 preventive guidelines amid surging infections and deaths.

This would imply that the Ministry of Health had looked at its statistics on Covid infections in those districts and anticipated a worse scenario in the ongoing campaigns. However, the ministry’s own statistics do not suggest so. At least half of the 16 districts/cities where campaigns were cancelled have each cumulatively recorded less than 400 infections in the last 10 months.

For example, Kazo and Buvuma districts each has less than 100 Covid-19 infections. Yet in districts such as Amuru and Gulu, which are among the Covid-19 hotspots with infections at 807 and 589 cases respectively, the EC did not ban the campaigns.

This undermines the credibility of the claim that campaigns were banned in the 16 districts because of the high Covid-19 infections. 

Besides, in Kampala, which accounts for nearly half of the national Covid-19 infections, save for Parliament and local government elections, only three presidential candidates Yoweri Museveni, Patrick Amuriat and Mugisha Muntu have campaigned, but also in only a few areas.

Thus, it is hard to attribute the surge in Covid-19 cases to election campaigns to justify the ban. These reality contradictions give some credence to the claims that the campaigns were banned due to other reasons, other than the escalation of Covid infections.

Many of the districts are also where the Opposition presidential candidates had not visited to campaign. In the circumstances, the hypothesis that the cancellation of campaigns in those areas was politically motivated to prevent the Opposition from campaigning in their strongholds, especially Kampala and Wakiso, cannot be ruled out.

If the campaigns ban was derived from the joint meeting between EC and Ministry of Health, then it would be a fair assumption that it was a government decision after realising that physical campaigns, which attract crowds, would escalate the spread the contagious virus in those districts.

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