Arua Woman Member of Parliament Maurine Osoru raised a matter of national importance. Osoru noted that lack of adequate equipment is hindering Electoral Commission (EC) officials from carrying out the voter verification exercise.
Justice Byabakama says the Electoral Commission is currently conducting a General Update of the National Voters’ Register, to enable potential voters to confirm their intention to participate in the elections, and where they intend to vote from. The General Update exercise which started on Thursday, November 21, will continue until Wednesday, December 11, 2019.
Some of the residents claim they lost their National Identity Cards, while others did not register for National Ids during the mass registration in 2014.
At Kiwogozi Parish, the Enrolment Officer Shamim Namanda said each day less than 10 people turn up for the exercise despite the high number of voters spread in the five polling stations in the parish.
The fears come just a day after the Electoral Commission embarked on a nationwide exercise to verify the particulars of voters on the National Voters’ Register and to identify all Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in each village. This is in preparation for the 2020-2021 General Elections.
Okoya, a former journalist was appointed interim UPC Chairperson last month following the death of Benjamin Oola Ameda who succumbed to stroke in August.
Emily Moses Akol, the District Youth Chairman for Kaabong says participation in elections of youth leaders is always very low as delegates fear to meet transport costs. He says the issue has created vulnerability in the choices of youth leaders as the youth vote candidates with money.
Kaheru lists three broad areas of achievements under his tenure including developing human capital in which the organization’s professional staff number attached to the secretariat grew from two in 2009 to 15 full time staff in 2019. He also says he is leaving behind a team of 9,645 trained, domestic election observers spread across the country.
The Executive Secretary of Uganda Joint Christian Council -UJCC, Fr. Constantine Mbonabingi says the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces should not be deployed during elections to demilitarise the process.
Mao cautioned the members especially the youth against being taken up by the excitement of a pressure group,which he says is not premised on clear principals.
Dr Lulume Bayiga, the former Secretary-General of the Democratic Party said there is need to engage other people and political organizations to ensure that they all agree on an opposition candidate to contest against the ruling National Resistance Movement.
Although she is not new to parliament, Nakwang has an uphill task to prove her relevance to the constituents, who had ejected her from the house in 2017, in a by-election that followed the nullification of the 2016 results over voter bribery and other election malpractices.
The election was held on Thursday this week and Harriet Mugenyi Businge the National Resistance Movement-NRM Flag bearer was declared the winner after she garnered 33301 votes while Asinansi Nyakato of the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC garnered 28789 votes in the hotly contested election.
In the results announced at 1:43am by the Kaabong District Registrar, Julius Ogwang Ongom, at Kaabong Community Hall, Nakwang garnered 22,532 votes against Adyaka's 1,692 votes.
At Camp Swahili Community NUSAF Hall, Adyaka’s polling station, polling closed without her voting. Charles Locham, a polling official says the candidate never turned up to vote.
Paul Bukenya, the Senior Communications Officer with the Electoral Commission says voting was delayed because of late arrival of the first five voters to witness opening of the ballot boxes He also revealed that there was some interference by weather due to early morning drizzles.
