By Mulengera Reporters
The Electoral Commission last week commenced a mapping exercise aimed at establishing who the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Uganda are and where they are located.
The mapping exercise, besides establishing their geographical locations and where they are likely to vote from in 2026, will enable the electoral body to establish the nature of disability they suffer from namely how many of them are deaf, blind, confined in a wheelchair and the like. That information will aid the electoral body in procuring the necessary voting or polling materials for them and know what has to be deployed at which polling station and in what quantities.
So, consultative and inclusive as always, the EC recently reached out to the different stakeholders in the PWDs movement who come together under the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU). It had to be NUDIPU because it’s the umbrella body under which the 16 member associations coalesce to do advocacy and amplify matters relating to the PWDs cause.
NUDIPU BOSS SPEAKS OUT: In an interview with Mulengera News, Esther Kyozira who is the CEO for NUDIPU, observed that they are grateful that the Electoral Commission has this time round prioritized them and their peculiar circumstances like never before. Saying it was encouraging the mapping exercise was being done on good time, Kyozira explained that absence of unique facilities catering for those with sight, hearing and mobility impairments has always constrained the PWDs’ effective participation in electoral processes and exercise.
“We are grateful because this mapping exercise is very empowering as our people will be able to be catered for so that they can meaningfully participate in the elections more effectively than before. The information that is going to be compiled and validated will also be of great importance to us as leaders beyond just for the purposes of 2026 elections. We are also going to be able to know how many of the PWDs population are of voting age, which is good for advocacy and lobbying purposes,” Kyozira explained.
“We are also going to get the latest information on how many of the blind, the deaf and crippled are out there of voting age so that the Electoral Commission can plan to effectively deploy braille machines, interpreters and special voting spaces to cater for those in wheelchairs.”
ASKING FOR MORE: However, Kyozira said that from the information they have, the time which the EC allocated for the mapping exercise (closing on Wednesday 13th November) won’t be enough and as such, they are requesting for an extension by more days or weeks.
And she explained why. “In especially the villages and rural parts of Uganda, information moves very slowly and momentum for the mapping exercise requires time to be adequately built. We also would like the EC to make use of the media and its own structures especially at parish level and the government’s LC1 system to spread the word more, so that our PWDs can embrace the exercise so that no one is left behind,” Kyozira explained while imploring the PWDs’ elected leaders, like the five MPs, to also do the same so that the message reaches all-near and far.
Saying that the ongoing mapping exercise by the EC will also enable them to get the latest information and statistics about the PWDs population characteristics, as they wait for the December release of the final 2024 census results report by UBOS, Kyozira also implored the PWDs structures that are resident in all districts of Uganda to equally get involved in amplifying the messaging by the Electoral Commission in their respective regions. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
