By Vivian E. Asedri
THE 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections are perhaps more historic than any of Uganda’s previous ones because of the way it has energised and excited the stakeholders. And the tone at which the international observers — particularly the European Union (EU) and the US — have been drumming up cautionary warnings to our political leaders against possible consequences of vote rigging has been more brusque than ever before. This is partly because they fear that what marred Uganda’s past election outcomes might repeat itself.

But one aspect of these elections which appears to be off the radar is the Ugandans in the Diaspora. As the Electoral Commission (EC) does house cleaning and update their data base in readiness for the polls, I am making a passionate appeal to the EC and the Ugandan Parliament — on behalf of all the Ugandans abroad — to make provisions and allow them to exercise their constitutional right to vote from their respective location of residency as absentee voters.

Today you find Ugandans living on every continent of the world, thanks partly to our turbulent post-independence political history.

As these Ugandan nationals made other countries their second home, they have never forsaken the country that gave them their national identity by birth. This homeward vision was clearly reflected in the figures released by Bank of Uganda (BOU) and acknowledged by the finance ministry in the 2007/08 budget statement that remittances from Ugandans working abroad were estimated at $1,392m, up from $646m in the 2006/07 financial year.

Whereas it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of Ugandans spread world over because Uganda does not maintain embassies and consulates in every country, and since Ugandans living abroad rarely register their presence with the nearest available embassy, the magnitude of these remittances says a lot.

However, this lack of neither accurate population statistics nor their physical presence in Uganda should not in any way hinder them from casting their votes. Here are my suggestions to the EC and Parliament on how this can be done as smoothly, transparently and fairly as possible without the fear of electoral fraud:

lOnly Ugandans abroad who carry valid Ugandan passports should be eligible to participate, including those who may be living in these countries illegally as their illegal immigration status has nothing to do with them exercising their constitutional rights. And those who may have naturalised into citizenry of the adopted country of residence should be allowed to expeditiously get new Ugandan passports in time for the polls.

lParliament should authorise the EC to establish a Ugandans in the Diaspora Electoral Office (UDEO) at the EC headquarters purposely to handle votes cast by Ugandans living abroad. Since I envision this to be electronic voting, setting up the UDEO should not be mired by financial restrictions. The only funds needed are for reliable software that should interface with the current EC database.

lUnlike voter verification protocols at polling stations back home, the absentee electronic voting should be guided primarily by the passport numbers, holders’ full names, dates of issue and expiration and class of the passport. These parameters should be verified by personnel from the passport office who should be available at UDEO during the time allowed for processing of this electronic voting.

lRepresentatives of each participating political party should also be present at the UDEO to monitor the polls and the database computer vault must only be accessed at specific times of the day when all the respective party poll monitors are present.
These should be printed out to have paper trail as evidence of voting, and tallied accordingly.

lThe EC should post names, and if possible, passport size photos of the presidential and parliamentary candidates on its website to facilitate the absentee electronic voting.

lAny Ugandans in the Diaspora who are visiting Uganda during the election time must not be allowed to participate in the traditional polls, but instead cast their votes electronically as if they were physically abroad. This should help fight double voting.

lThe Parliament and EC should give eligible Ugandans abroad a two-month deadline to the date of the polls to register on line so that the EC has enough time to process the voters in this category.

Assuming that Ugandan passports have not been fraudulently issued to non-Ugandan nationals, if these absentee electronic voting ideas are embraced, it will not only be unique and historic for Uganda, but it will also be a valuable tool for the government to gauge the number of Ugandans living abroad.

The significant role played by Ugandans abroad in the domestic politics and economy was manifested more than ever before when the NRM and opposition parties openly campaigned for their respective candidates during the September 2009 Uganda North American Association (UNAA) presidential elections in Chicago, Illinois, US.

Surely, if the Government could use tax payer money to fly the First Lady and Minister for Karamoja, Janet Museveni and the Minister of State for Luwero Triangle, Nyombi Thembo and other government officials to campaign for the UNAA NRM presidential candidate, it can facilitate this project.

I welcome additional ideas or criticism to my absentee voting blue print from our legislators, Ugandans abroad and back home so that it can be perfected and made operational.
The writer is a medical information technologist,
San Diego, California, US