By Mulengera Reporters
The Electoral Chairman Justice Simon Byabakama has denied claims that the ongoing voters register update exercise is being used to advantage the ruling NRM party to the detriment of it’s opponents from the opposition side.
During a news conference in Kampala, a journalist asked to be updated on what the EC was doing to respond to concerns that the ruling NRM was taking advantage of the exercise to rig the 2026 polling exercise in advance.
Seemingly appalled by the question, Byabakama demanded for evidence that the Electoral Commission had permitted NRM to hijjack, take control and manipulate the exercise in anyway. And the journalist who asked the question couldn’t corraborate his claims.
Byabakama rightly explained that all political parties and other stakeholders had enthusiastically embraced the voters register update exercise by mobilising citizens and their members to go out to become registered voters and verify their status on the voters register, besides applying to be transferred to new polling stations or parishes for those wishing to do so.
He asserted that this exercise of mobilising people to turn up had been embraced by all political actors and other stakeholders and not only the NRM. He challenged anybody who has contrary information to step forward and share it with the electoral commission in confidence so that remedial actions can be taken.
Byabakama said it was a duty of every individual Ugandan citizen and political actor to vigorously get involved in taking steps aimed at ensuring that the country delivers a free, fair and credible election in 2026. He said that the 2026 election road map activities require everybody’s participation because there is no way the EC can do all that work alone.
Byabakama also saluted the LC1s for so far doing a good job of helping out on verificafion of details for those coming to the EC’s voters register update centers in the more than 12,000 parishes scattered across Uganda. The LC1s are the ones whose recommendation the EC depends on to determine one’s eligibility to be registered or facilitated to transfer from one polling station or parish to another provided that’s where they currently reside or originate from.
Byabakama also said that every citizen of Ugandan has a duty to get involved in ensuring that people who get recommended are Ugandans and indeed residents in or hail from those parishes and wards. That it’s only through citizens’ vigilance that such anomalies, as foreigners and non-Ugandan citizens being recommended, can be identified and taken note of by the EC for mitigation. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
