By Joan Ahumuza
Kampala: The Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama Mugenyi has Thursday, October 17, 2019, revealed that the Commission is all ready for the 2020/2021 elections and has started verification of the national voters’ register at the village level.
Justice Byabakama, who held a presser at the EC offices along Jinja Road, said the Commission had received several complaints of ineligible voters appearing on the voters’ register in previous by-elections and general elections.
Byabakama said that “That’s why the Commission has come up with verification of voters on the register using village councils.”
He added that “We opted for this strategy because it has been tested in the previous elections and proved to be essential once applied in the electoral system. And it was also discovered that creation of more administrative units has brought forth a high cost of maintaining a stable national voters’ register and consequently a higher cost to electoral processes.
He noted that “The verification process will entail convening village council meetings which are to be always presided over by the village chairman, whereas the parish supervisor shall serve as the verification official during the village council meeting which will always aim at verification as the main item on the agenda.
The particulars of the voters in a given village shall then be extracted from the national voters’ register and availed to the meeting by the parish supervisor. After that the verification official shall guide the meeting through a roll call session to ascertain particulars of those voters who should be removed from the register .”
He said the Commission has laid programme for the entire processes, whereby there will be briefing sub-county supervisors on verification of national voters register which was conducted yesterday October 16, 19 at district headquarters and there will be briefing of supervisors and village chairmen on verification of the national voters’ register which was conducted today.
Another program arranged is the mobilization of village residents to turn up to participate in village level verification of national voters’ register which will be conducted for three days ending October 20, 19 and after village council meetings will be held to verify the national voters’ register in each village per parish on separate days for a period of eight days from October 21, 19 ending 28/10/19.
