KAMPALA.
With barely seven days to the January 15 General Election , the Electoral Commission (EC) has started issuing the final hard copies of the National Voters Register to the eight presidential candidates.
Officials from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party were the first to pick up their copies Wednesday mid-morning before their counterparts from the National Unity Platform (NUP) followed suit early afternoon. Section 19 of the Electoral Commission Act Cap 176 demands the EC to issue the register to participating political parties and candidates two weeks before polls.
On Wednesday, EC spokesperson Julius Mucunguzi, who handed over the copies to the officials, said the EC was committed to organising a free, fair, and credible elections. But the issuance comes barely a week to the January 15 polling date, which kicks off next week on Thursday with presidential and parliamentary elections. “The Commission has started issuing the hard copies of the National Voters Register to presidential candidates in accordance with the law. The process includes verification of all the registers for the 50,000 plus polling stations, and they are organised in batches according to regions and districts,” he said.
“Each of the representatives of the candidates is required to verify all the copies of the register presented to them. The register is about one million pages, and each page contains particulars of voters, including their photos, and the register is going to be used during the polling.” Mr Mucunguzi said it requires three hours for each of the candidates or their agents to verify the entire register. “NRM came in early morning, as I speak now (5pm), NUP is still here verifying. So, the others will be called in one by one until all eight have picked registers,” he said.
Mr Alex Rovans, an assistant to the NUP secretary general who picked up the copies of the register on behalf of his party, faulted the EC for delaying the issuance as it accorded limited time to study it and raise pertinent queries on time. “We have raised numerous complaints, but the EC has not been responding regarding questions about duplication of voters on the lists. The secretary general identified more than 1,500 duplicated voters in Kampala Central constituency alone. Nevertheless, we are going to study this register in the shortest time remaining and raise any issue,” he said.
The EC on November 26, released an updated national voter’s register which indicated the number of registered voters had shot up from 18.1 million in the 2021 polls to 21.6 million who would next week cast their votes at 50,739 polling stations across the country. Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, the NUP party secretary general, on Tuesday issued a terse letter to the EC, demanding it stick to the law and issue the final hard copies of the national voters register. Mr Mucunguzi yesterday said, “We are focusing on substance and the substance and fact of the matter is that presidential candidates have now received the register.
The issue of the hours and dates and days is another matter, but we are focusing on the substance of the compliance with the law, which is that the candidates should receive the National Voters Register before polling day.” Eight candidates are running in the presidential polls and include Robert Kyagulanyi of the National Unity Platform (NUP), incumbent Yoweri Museveni of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), and Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
Others are Maj Gen (rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Robert Kasibante of the National Peasants’ Party (NPP), Elton Joseph Mabirizi of the Conservative Party (CP), Frank Bulira of the Revolutionary People’s Party (RPP), and Mubarak Munyagwa of the Common Man’s Party (CMP).