Mr Paul Bukenya stated that elections in certain areas could not be conducted with the rest at the original time due to violence at polling stations or absence or mismatch of candidates’ details, among others.

Some of the elections held yesterday were for district chairpersons for Kaasangombe in Nakaseke and Nabingoola, Mateete Town Council in Mawogola, Ngandho Sub-County in Budiope and Bala Sub-County in Kole, among others.

In Madi-Okollo, the election of district chairperson was cancelled due to mismatch of photos and names of candidates. Photos of two candidates on the ballot papers had the same name. Ms Aisha Lubega Basajjanaku said all persons participating in the residual elections are required to comply with guidelines against the spread of Covid19 such as observing social distance, hand washing and wearing of face masks.

These were the last elections that the Electoral Commission conducted in the 2021 general elections. They thus conclude the elections which commenced on the 12^th of January.

Voting shall be by universal adult suffrage, and shall take place at all polling stations in the respective Municipalities and City Divisions across the country, beginning at 7:00am till 4:00pm. Thereafter, counting of votes and declaration of results shall take place.

Political parties and independent candidates are encouraged to officially appoint and station their agents at polling stations in the above electoral areas where the elections will be conducted.

Other than observing the exercise, candidates’ agents shall not be expected to interfere with the polling process.

All persons participating in the elections shall be required to comply with guidelines issued by the Electoral Commission in accordance with the Government of Uganda and Ministry of Health measures against the spread of COVID-19.

This includes observing social distancing, hand washing, and wearing of masks.

The Municipalities and City Divisions in Uganda ahead of the polling date are these:

The Electoral Commission has, in a statement, said that it noted the video recordings. They further stated that they took all measures as per electoral laws to ensure electoral processes were conducted with integrity.

However, it stated that such allegations are given serious consideration and will be investigated to establish their veracity.

These allegations come after a statement form Robert Kyagulanyi who, before the internet was restored, said they had evidence of tampering with the ballot boxes. He promised that this would be released upon the internet being restored.

He noted that it is his intention to ensure that the Commission is accountable for any discrepancies in the elections conducted on the 14^th of January. The Commission later announced, on the 16^th, that the victor was Kaguta Tibahaburwa who would now be serving his 6^th term as President of the Republic of Uganda.

The Commission is working vehemently to ensure that the result was credible and is therefore ironing out any flaws in the process.

All through Uganda’s brief post-independence history, never had a political contender been non-aligned and new to politics as Kyagulanyi has been. It is therefore not shocking that the political gurus and matadors had no counter-strategy to Kyagulanyi’ s puristic strategy – which was itself not a strategy. So, we were witnesses to NRM groping in the dark for solutions to the overwhelming influence of Kyagulanyi and his puritan approach.

We have seen yet again that the popularity of the candidate doesn’t determine the victor. Whereas it should, it simply doesn’t! The self-proclaimed free world and the oldest practitioners of modern democracy rely on an electoral system that, in a way, defeats the purpose of popular democracy. The United States electoral college represents the presidential choice of a certain class. Arguments may be made left or right, it is undeniable that at the end of the day, there is a certain class of people in the free world that cannot become president. I digress!

In practice, democracy is not a choice of the people; it is a government of the minor majority. Consider Uganda, a country with approximately 45M citizens. Of these, only 18M were registered to vote; this doesn’t amount to a simple majority. Understandably, among the 45M are children who are not eligible, inmates who are denied the opportunity – which, if I may say, is unconstitutional – the mentally encumbered and other groups that are excluded.

Simply, Tibahaburwa won the election with approximately 5M votes! In what sane world is this a majority of 45M. Do not misconstrue my submission; I do not argue that the result is a flaw of our electoral system – these are all well known – rather, this result is a reflection of a flaw in democracy.

In addition to this inadequacy, countries such as Uganda have other factors hindering proper representative government. I need not repeat them here; reports have been made over the same issues since 2001. However, the query is whether Uganda should continue its pretence!

The Electoral Commission reportedly excluded results from over 1,200 polling stations. The justification was that the incumbent president-elect had already obtained the necessary 51{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} of the vote and the numbers from the excluded polling stations could not change that fact. This has been reiterated in courts since the first presidential election petition under the 1995 Constitution.

Petitioners have presented numerous factors that affected the credibility of the result in all these petitions. I take the opportunity here to make reference to Daniel Kalinaki’s Kizza Besigye and Uganda’s Unfinished Revolution. In this work, it is stated that the Supreme Court was on the verge of nullifying the 2001 elections. The Justices, while in chambers, received a call from Rwakitura. The caller stated his knowledge of the intended direction of the Court regarding the election. He warned that a decision in that direction would keep him in the outskirts while the country dealt with any subsequent anarchy. The consequent of the call was that a 4:3 verdict to nullify turned into a 5:2 verdict to uphold the elections despite the discrepancies.

The learned Justices noted that although there were inconsistencies, they were not substantial enough to alter the elections result. The Supreme Court gave recommendations for curing the inconsistencies. Such became the precedent and practice; the highest court in the land would declare inconsistencies while overlooking them and issuing recommendations. It is unlikely, as we wait for the petition that will follow this election, that the result of the petition will be any different from those of 2016, 2011, 2006 and 2001!

Further, in the last cycle, social media was shutdown. This time, the government made a bolder move to shutdown the internet; and numerous businesses along with it. Many enjoyed a forceful holiday following a Covid19 forced break. Yet, there are no foreseeable consequences to this new and growing policy. The country stomached the financial implications of the first and will surely be complacent about this as well. It is only an evolutionary addition to Uganda’s many electoral policies.

I think that we can find feasible solutions to our political inequities after conceding that we lack democratic institutions proper. Uganda’s history bears all the signs; it is not a country built for popular democracy. One that has the army decides what’s best for the country. It has never been any other way. It does not matter if all eligible Ugandans were willing to vote, the goal posts can be moved to alter who is eligible.

This country is the motherland of dictatorial democracy; always has been! If we deny this truth, we are bound to keep hopeless hope to the ends of time!

It has stated that given the nature of the polling booth, an open basin, the presence of cameras inside polling stations may jeopardise the secrecy of the ballot as camera usage may be uncontrolled. It reminded the public that the secrecy of the ballot is aimed at ensuring that a vote is anonymous and cannot be traced back to the person who cast it. A secret ballot is thus necessary for peaceful, free and fair elections.

Further, while phones are not prohibited, they should not be used for recording purposes or taking photographs within areas that have been cordoned off. Also, a voter must not display his or her choice of a candidate on polling day by taking a photograph or any other recording of any kind. Similarly, the voter should not display his or her choice by ticking the ballot outside the basin.

The Commission noted that these measures are in line with article 68(1) of the Constitution. It provides that all public elections shall be by secret ballot, save for administrative units elections (LC 1 and LC II).

Media personnel who were accredited to cover the elections will be permitted to access polling stations an may take photographs of the voting process while outside the cordoned off area in a manner that protects the privacy of the voters and secrecy of the ballot.

The counting of votes cast at each polling station will be conducted openly, and a voter or candidate’s agent may take photographs or recordings of the counting process and the Declaration of Results Forms.

The breakage is a result of impact of stacked metal boxes sealed with plastic seals, pressing against each other during transportation. As a measure to ensure integrity and transparency of the process, stakeholders in the respective districts are briefed before the offloading begins. Any box found with a broken seal gets replaced and the serial numbers of both the old and new seals are recorded. This is done after ascertaining that the contents of the polling kit are all intact.

The Commission assures all stakeholders that the polling kit remains sealed up to the time of delivery at the polling station were the Presiding Officer will open it, on the morning of the polling day in the presence of 10 registered voters at the respective polling station.

Political parties and candidates are urged to appoint agents to observe the safe custody of the polling kit, until the same is delivered to the respective polling stations on polling day.

The EC, in their public demonstration sought to bring on board and obtain public feedback. The commission also sought support in disseminating clear information to the general public. In order to improve accuracy, security, efficiency and credibility in the delivery of electoral services, the Commission has embarked on deliberate actions to integrate technology in its operations and systems.

Accordingly, in preparation fro the 2021 general elections, the Commission has acquired the BVVM which will be used to verify voters who present themselves at polling stations on polling day. Out of the above consignment, two thousand units were purchased while 36500 were leased from Smartmatic International, a leading technology firm based in the Netherlands.

The BVVM will be deployed at all the 34684 polling stations in Uganda during the upcoming elections. The system is one of the new measures aimed at improving the management and conduct of elections in Uganda through authentication of voter identity. It uses fingerprints to match voter details which will help the Presiding officer to confirm the identity of the voter as being the one on the Voters’ Register of that particular polling station.

The system will enable the commission to ensure that only registered persons vote during the elections and that such persons do not vote more than once for the same election. Hence, the BVV system will help the commission greatly improve the identification of voters and also addressed the challenge of voter impersonation during elections.

Through the ability to read the unique bar code on the Voter Location Slip, will help a voter to locate his or her polling station within the district should they turn up at a polling station where they are not registered.

The Commission reported that the training of field staff on the use of the BVV equipment has been ongoing at National and Regional level and will be conducted with the training of the Presiding Officer and the one polling assistant for the BVVM before polling day.

Political parties and independent candidates are urged to appoint and deploy their agents to attend the training so that they get familiar with the operations of the machines. The commission designed a plan for the timely dispatch of the machines to all districts in time for the polling. Further, it called upon the stakeholders in the electoral process to follow the guidelines for the use of this biometric verification technology to acquire the desired result; a fraud-free election.

The Electoral Commission dispatched materials for Special Interest Groups (SIGs), Presidential and Parliamentary elections to all districts in the country yesterday. The packing of the polling materials had commenced in the month of December last year.

The materials are for elections of Councillors for SIGs; older persons, persons with disabilities (PWD) and youths, to Sub Country/Town Council/Municipal Division which will be held on 11^th January this year. Materials for similar groups for Municipality/City Division elections to be held on 12^th January as well as Presidential and General Parliamentary Elections to be held on 14^th January this year were dispatched.

The dispatch will continue until all districts are duly served. The Commission pledged to have all districts well supplied in time for this cycle of elections. At the time of the flag off, Busia, Butambala, Mukono, Iganga, Karenga, Kasese, Agago, Sironko and Terego were ready for dispatch.

The Returning Officers and District Police Commanders (DPCs) at the various districts will take charge of the security of the polling materials. Political parties and all candidates fro presidential elections were invited to observe the printing, delivery and the packing of the materials and were also invited to observe the dispatch of the materials.

The Commission urged parties and candidates who wished to accompany the materials to officially appoint the agents who would follow the dispatch so that they’d be cleared. This appointment had to be made known to the Commission in writing and include the vehicles they’d use.

Section 16(1)(a) of the Electoral Commissions Act, gives the Commission powers to accredit representatives of political parties, civil society organizations, media and any other duly registered institutions to observe electoral activities.

At least 49 national and international organisations, diplomatic missions and regional institutions have expressed interest in observing the elections, with the first category (Presidential and Parliamentary elections) scheduled for 14^th January, 2021.

Hajat Aisha clarified that the Accreditation Center will process applications for observation for the National Elections Results Tally Center, as well as tally centers for Kampala Capital City, Wakiso and Mukono districts. Observers for other district tally centers across the country will be accredited by the respective District Returning Officers.

She also emphasized that accredited observers will have to comply with election observer guidelines and Code of Conduct issued by the Electoral Commission, and with the Government of Uganda and Ministry of Health measures against the spread of Covid19