According to the EC one would require between 40 to 52 million shillings to travel and stay in South Africa, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom for 14 to 30 days to monitor the process.
Several presidential
candidates have said they cannot afford the cost of sending agents to monitor the
ballot paper making process.
The Electoral
Commission (EC) is sending out its teams to proof read and look at the designs
of ballot papers to the various publishing companies.
According to the EC one
would require between 40 to 52 million shillings to travel and stay in South
Africa, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom for 14 to 30 days to monitor the process.
The Commission urges
as part of the election process monitoring and observation candidates to sponsor
agents at their own cost to go and witness the design, printing, packing and
transportation of ballot papers to Uganda. But the presidential candidates say
they were not briefed about the process because it is costly and not affordable.
Nancy Linda Kalembe,
an Independent candidate says the system is broken that is why they
require for candidates to send agents to witness the printing of the ballot
papers.
She says this should
have been done in Uganda, to reduce the costs and allow for more transparency,
if the structures and government systems were efficient and operating more
transparently.
\\Cue in “the fact
that…
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all.”//
Alliance for National
Transformation - ANT presidential candidate Gregg Mugisha Muntu, has always allayed
fears about the integrity of the EC to print ballot papers locally
and pushed for the printing to be done from out of Uganda.
Willy Mayambala, an
independent presidential candidate says he was not told about the process to
prepare during the nomination exercise and in the subsequent meetings with the
EC. Besides he cannot afford to send agents to three countries to monitor
five publishing companies. He says what the EC
is doing is pro the incumbent government and presidential candidate to print
ballot papers from out of Uganda in different countries and firms. The
parliament should have prevailed over the EC to guide objectively.
\\ Cue in “but
someone would…
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hands.”//
Paul Bukenya, EC
Media and Public Relations manager says the preparations of 2021 election polling
materials is transparent and presidential candidates, well-wishers and
political parties have been invited to be accredited to witness the design,
printing and verification of ballot paper making process.
\\ Cue in “when we
are…
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travel.”//
The Electoral
Commission (EC) has awarded contracts to five companies for the printing of ballot papers for use
in the 2021 general elections.The companies awarded to print the ballot papers for the elections include; United
Printing and Publishing, Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing all located in the
United Arab Emirates, Uniprint (SA), Durban South Africa, Tall Security Print
Limited and Adare Sec Limited all located in the United Kingdom.
The process will take
more than one month, but the ballots are expected to arrive in Uganda one week
before elections on January 14, 2021.
The Public
Procurement and Disposable of public Assets Authority (PPDA) cancelled the
initial ballot printing contract which had been awarded to seven foreign
companies. The PPDA said the local printers were unfairly excluded from the
contract and ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct fresh evaluation
of the bids.
The 2016 election ballot
papers were printed in South Africa by Ms Paarl Media of South Africa, after
winning the tender to print the key voting material for presidential,
parliamentary and district woman councilors.
Aldon Walukamba
Freelancer