By Mulengera Reporters
The Electoral Commission Chairman Justice Simon Byabakama has clarified that no Muslim woman turning up at any of the EC Voters Register Update centers should be required to remove her veil as part of the verification exercise for her citizenship status.
Byabakama says that all that is important is for one’s Ugandan citizenship to be ascertained and that once that is done, one should be registered or allowed to transfer to a new polling station or parish provided that the LC1s validate that that’s where that person resides or originates from. The EC Chairman says that none of that requires a Muslim woman being compelled to remove her veil.
This has widely been criticized as dehumanizing and a violation of the rights enshrined under Articles 21 and 24 of the Constitution. Byabakama says that no one should be subjected to such inhuman and degrading treatment. That any of the voters’ register update officer of the EC who does that or imposes such a requirement should be reported to the Electoral Commission for the appropriate sanctioning.
During a news conference at the EC headquarters in Kampala, Byabakama confessed that he too had heard of such reports and was prepared to ensure that any such perpetrators, once positively identified, get severely sanctioned.
He said the required verification of one’s citizenship has nothing to do with removal of the Muslim veil from the heads of any of the Muslim women turning up at the EC voters register update centers. He apologized to whoever has so far been inconvenienced in such a way.
Byabakama added that such maltreatment ought to be condemned because it can discouraged such veiled Muslim women from turning up at voters register update centers for the ongoing exercise that is ending next Monday. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
