By Mulengera Reporters
The coming onto the Ugandan political scene of musician Bobi Wine in 2017 demistified politics for a lot of people who used to shun it as stuff for very serious people.
It’s now public knowledge that when he took up political leadership of the opposition side, Bobi Wine made many hitherto fence-sitting Ugandans, especially his fellow youths, to realize and begin taking more seriously their duty to participate in politics as voters, campaigning agents and candidates.
Yet many of the things Mr. Wine created apatite for can only be done or effectively participated into when one is enrolled onto the national voters register, compellable by the Electoral Commission, to become a voter.
Julius Mucunguzi, the EC Spokesperson & head of public relations, says that out of necessity, Uganda must have a national voters’ register that is reliable, clean, credible and secure. Yet this desirable ideal can only be achieved with full support, collaboration and participation of every Ugandan, as opposed to leaving everything to the financially-under resourced EC alone.
In a Sunday media message, Mucunguzi called upon Ugandans to take advantage of the last day (Monday 10th February) for the voter registration update exercise. This exercise has been going on countrywide with update centers scattered at the country’s more than 12,000 parishes and wards under the different sub counties and other administrative centers.
The exercise had began on 20th January and will be culminating on Monday 10th February. Given the importance of the voters registration update exercise, Parliament has already been demanding that the Speaker leverages his/her position and directs the Electoral Commission to render an extension.
There is a possibility this extension will be granted to enable more voters to get enrolled onto the register or even transfer from one polling station to another. But Mucunguzi says what must happen now is for Ugandans to take maximum advantage of the last day to go out and make sure all is in place.
The exercise was meant to enable voters to get enrolled onto the register and those desiring to transfer to new polling stations, to do so. It was also an opportunity for those desiring to correct or change on their particulars (say date of birth, arrangement of names etc) to be able to do so.
For young Ugandans, who were enrolled as school girls and boys for purposes of NIRA national ID-acquisition, the voter registration update exercise was meant to enable them to use their NIN numbers to approach EC officials at the update centers to enroll them on the register.
Once that is done, such young voters are allocated a polling station of their choice depending on where one resides or originates from. Mucunguzi thanked the EC field team members who became “team no sleep” and willingly availed themselves Monday to Monday from 8am to 6pm to ensure that everyone gets to be enrolled onto the register or transferred to a new polling station of their choice.
Mucunguzi also explained some of the very important elections-related things one can be prevented doing or from participating in simply because they aren’t a registered voter.
These include the following: one can’t be a candidate in an election except if they are registered voters on the register; can’t be an agent of a candidate unless they appear on the voters register; can’t be one of the seconders of a given candidate at the nomination center unless if they are registered voters.
Even taking note of an anomaly and going on to effectively raise it to the EC or even Courts of law, one has to be a registered voter. Mucunguzi called upon Ugandans to reciprocate the hard work EC staff and bosses in Kampala have put in by maximally making use of the final day to go out at the register update centers and do the needful so that they are able to participate in choosing the country’s leaders for the 2026-2031 governance period.
He also implored the Gen Z generation and all the other Ugandans who are IT savvy to take advantage of the EC online resources (such as www.ec.org.ug/registration) to ascertain their presence on the national voters’ register. All one needs is keying in their NIN number and follow the steps.
In a related development, the EC Chairman Justice Simon Byabakama will on Monday lead the rest of the team to address a news conference at their 7th Street Industrial Area-based head offices (starting from 10.30am) to update the country on the outcomes of the national voters’ register update exercise-and generally what to do next under the 2026 electoral road map. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
