By Our Reporters
Having endured sustained criticisms by none other than President Museveni, the Electoral Commission has issued a lukewarm response in which their Chairman Simon Byabakama timidly tries to respond to the big man from Rwakitura. In the carefully worded one page rebuttal, Byabakama comes off as so fearful he can’t even openly identify or mention names of people (he safely calls them stakeholders) whose earlier complaints (he calls them concerns) he is reacting to. Without pronouncing himself clearly as to whether the President’s condemnations carry any weight or not, Byabakama says the EC has loudly heard the concerns that have so far been raised regarding the integrity of the National Voters Register (NVR) and has acted by constituting a technical committee to investigate the wild claims regarding the integrity of the NVR. Over the weekend, the President hit below the belt when he said the EC was in part comprised of “rotten people” whom he vowed to weed out using the renowned might of his ruling NRM party. As he inaugurated newly elected women council leaders, Museveni accused the EC of corruption among other anomalies. He also accused EC of ferrying ghost voters in Municipality by-elections where his ruling party was badly bruised. In his measured response, Byabakama makes no effort to defend his commission against these very specific allegations which go to the root of the EC’s integrity and moral authority to organize any future elections. He writes: “The EC wishes to assure all stakeholders that we are committed to delivering free, fair and transparent elections whose cornerstone is a credible National Voters Register.”
Ironically, Byabakama says the EC he leads welcomes all manner of criticisms (including those of the President that went as far as threatening the electoral body’s core moral existence) as valuable feedback “that informs the Commission on the quality of electoral service delivery and areas that may require the Commission’s attention.” Some social media users have since disapprovingly responded to Byabakama’s response with many likening it to admission that indeed the criticisms raised by the President and others before him are true and reflective of the anomalous situation at the Jinja road-based Commission. Many argue as the EC’s over all figure, Byabakama should have responded more specifically since the big man from Rwakitura had been very specific in his offensive against the EC whose officials he warned risk being fired from their jobs. For feedback reach us on 0703164755.
