By Mulengera Reporters
Justice Simon Byamukama, who chairs Uganda’s Independent Electoral Commission, has promised to once again deliver an inclusive, a transparent, free and fair electoral exercise come 2026.
Speaking to the impending Kawempe North by-election stakeholders during their awareness-creation engagement meeting at Tick Hotel on Monday, Byabakama (at length) explained what the ongoing national voter register update exercise is all about, why it’s something every citizen must pay attention to and the role LC1 chairpersons have to play in the same.
Byabakama explained that the voter update exercise is about many things including facilitating and enabling those desiring to change from one polling station to another. It’s permissible for one to transfer from one polling station to another. And the benefiting voter must be either born or resident in the area he or she desires to transfer their 2026 voting or polling to.
The EC chief further elaborated that such relocation or transfer has to be authenticated by the LC1s because its them who are supposed to know such people and only them can validate the same to the EC. The LC1s, upon verification, proceed to write and stamp on the introduction letter which such a voter delivers to the update center for their wish to be effected.
The same voters register update exercise involves cleaning up the register which can be by way of identifying and deleting those who died. And the person to confirm so and so died or left the area is none other than the LC1 Chairman of that village.
There are new voters, real adult persons who are 18 years and more but have never bothered to register for elections. The update exercise gives them chance to effect their wish to become voters in 2026 and still, its only the LC1s who can help the EC to ascertain if such applicants indeed originate from or are born in the village/cell relating to the polling station where they desire to vote from come 2026.
There is also another category called the learners who basically are NIRA/national ID-enrolled students whose Ugandan citizenship has already been authenticated, have become 18 and and are now desirous to be enrolled onto the voters register.
The ongoing voters register update exercise is equally an opportunity for such Ugandans to get enrolled onto the register and qualify to vote in 2026. The truthfulness and veracity of their claim to be originating from or residing in a given area can only be authenticated by the LC1s on whose recommendation the EC is mandated to do the needful.
VERY IMPORTANT ACTORS:
At the Tick Hotel meeting, Byabakama bragged about being the one EC Chairman who is more entitled to the cooperation and input of the LC1s than any of his predecessors. He said it was the current EC, which he leads, that organised the LC1s elections in 2018, the first time in 16 years that such an electoral exercise was taking place.
Speaking casually about this part, Byabakama implored the LC1s to be grateful and reciprocate such a symbiotic relationship by acting diligently while aiding the ongoing voter register update exercise. He said there is no way the final voter register can be of impeccable integrity without the LC1s acting prudently and honestly while recommending people to be newly added onto the register or transferred.
The EC big man gave the example of the possibility of foreigners fluking and finding themselves onto the voters register to illustrate the essentiality of the LC1s. “This is something some people have raised a red flag about and it can only be enabled by the LC1s because its on the strength of their recommendation letter that such a foreigner can end up enrolled on the register. As EC, we trust and rely on what is recommended to us by the LC1s because we have no other way to verify at that point in time,” said Byabakama, at the Tick Hotel meeting, in his broken Luganda.
He also referred to the fact that Uganda currently has a lot of administrative units including the more than 12,000 parishes and wards where its logistically impossible for the electoral body to have direct presence hence making it inevitable for them to rely on LC1s who are present everywhere in Uganda’s more than 70,000 villages.
Byabakama also called on voters, opinion leaders, political aspirants and all the other stakeholders to be vigilant and to keep getting involved to ensure that none of the rogue-minded LC1s (if any) ever successfully gets to recommend such foreigners and aliens who don’t qualify for inclusion onto the final voters register for 2026.
Byabakama also tipped stakeholders to take advantage of the display exercise to be able to identify and point out names who don’t qualify to be on the register for eventual deletion after all the verification processes have been followed and complied with. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
