By Mulengera Reporters
The Electoral Commission Chairman Justice Simon Byabakama has officially confirmed and publicly stated that where commercialisation of politics has reached in Uganda, there is simply no way anyone can win the race to become a Member of Parliament in this beautiful country of ours without being prepared and ready to part with not less than Shs500m.
A candid-speaking Byabakama made this confession on Monday at Kawempe Division headquarters where he met with all stakeholders as part of EC’s wider preparations for the 13th March by-elections, during which voters at 197 polling stations will be accorded chance to determine their area fallen MP Mohammed Ssegirinya’s successor.
As part of his remarks, Byabakama (who moved with his other Commissioners) used the opportunity to popularise the ongoing national voters register update besides calling upon all stakeholders to cooperate with the EC to ensure that the campaigning period or process is bribery, violence and teargas-free. Byabakama said that, for the entire exercise to go smoothly, all stakeholders have to proactively play their part as opposed to leaving everything to the EC.
He warned against processions which can disrupt traffic flow besides directing that no aspirant will be allowed to move with more than 2 vehicles as they come for nominations or leaving the venue.
To avoid paralyzing traffic and people’s businesses, Byabakama revealed that Police will be at hand to ensure that candidates only hold large campaign gatherings at their respective designated campaign venues on the respective days that will have been agreed upon during the harmonization meeting that will be chaired by Kawempe Assistant Returning Officer Rehema Nansubuga involving all the candidates who will successfully have been nominated.
Nansubuga is going to be the main EC person regarding the Kawempe North byelection because it falls under the area of her geographical jurisdiction. Commissioner Simba Ssali Kayunga, who said was a Kawempe resident for decades, pleaded with area residents and opinion leaders to deliberately work towards a peaceful campaigning period plus a free and fair elections.
He ran through a bit of the area’s very rich history before concluding that especially Kawempe North had a reputation and name to protect including being home to Nuhu Mbogo, the grandfather or patriarch of Islam in Uganda, and cradle for the first Muslim to become a Minister in Uganda. At the consultative event, several Imams spoke during the plenary session and gave their feedback regarding what EC must do to ensure all goes well.
Back to Byabakama: The EC boss spent ample time preaching against voter bribery which he said risked turning Uganda’s democracy and elections into a mockery of some sort. Byabakama, a former Assistant DPP, added that bribery not only discredits the country’s democracy record but is also an offence punishable by a jail term of up to 5 years or a fine of roughly Shs1.5m (if not both).
The same bribery, once proved via election petition in the High Court or CoA, can result into one’s election victory being overturned which costs both the affected candidate and the government as hundreds of millions of shillings will have to be designated to facilitate the subsequent by-election. 
Byabakama confessed that he had established as EC chairman that there is no way a poor person, however good they can be as a candidate, can win MP elections in Uganda anymore because you need not less than Shs500m for one election campaign cycle. He said this can only be circumvented through concerted effort because there is no way such criminal acts by individual candidates can be blamed on the Electoral Commission.
Equally true, Byabakama said there is no way electoral violence or presence of foreigners on the voters register can be blamed on the EC because it begins with rogue-minded LC1 Chairpersons who author letters of introduction to managers at the EC register update centers indicating that such people were either born or are resident in their respective villages.
Speaking candidly like never before, Byabakama added that those same rogue-minded LC1 Chairpersons, in writing, always recommend such foreigners to NIRA to be endolled for national ID issuance and once one possesses a national ID, it legally becomes mandatory for the EC to enroll that person onto the voters’ register.
Byabakama asserted that this is how foreigners end up becoming voters in Uganda. He clarified that these are the bitter truths that the electoral body subsequently gets to establish after harm has been occasioned. He added that the Electoral Commission is mandated to trust the LC1 Chairpersons and can simply not do without them because the role they play is mandated under the law.
Speaking more specifically, the EC Chairman stated that even in the voter register update exercise for Kawempe North, they are inevitably going to have to work with these same LC1 Chairpersons to clean up and delete the dead voters and its possible some rogue-minded village or cell chairpersons might ending up conniving to orchestrate some mischief to get ineligible people or voters onto the register.
Byabakama called on all the aspirants and other Kawempe North residents to aid EC’s efforts aimed at ensuring that no one is allowed to mischievously transfer from any other Division of Kampala to get onto the Kawempe North voters register in order to advantage certain candidates or political parties for the MP Seat. He said only those the LC1 Chairpersons certify to have been born in Kawempe North or to be residents there will be added during the register update exercise.
He called on everyone to be vigilant to ensure that no LC1 Chairperson succeeds in criminally aiding the transfer of voters from any other City Division to ineligibly become voters in Kawempe North. Responding to some of the stuff people had said during the plenary session, Byabakama also explained the EC’s inability to have brand new computers and laptops to expedite the ongoing update of the voters register nationally.
He said the electoral body was asked by government to share with NIRA and that’s how they have ended up using old gadgets which NIRA used in 2014 to enroll millions of Ugandans for the acquisition of national IDs. Besides thanking Ugandans for their understanding and patience, Byabakama also responded to those demanding to know why the EC doesn’t postpone elections until it has sufficient financial resources so as to be logistically ready.
The EC chief elaborated that, unlike passports, driving permits or even national IDs whose issuance can be paused because there is COVID or because government is broke and there is no money, the Constitutional provisions regarding elections (namely Article 61[2]) are very stringent to the extent that Presidential, MP and LGs elections have to be held within the first 30 days of the sitting government’s very last 120 days in office or else there will be a constitutional crisis in the country. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
