Electoral Commission mops up its mess

By Gawaya tegulleWith egg all over its face following the LC3 election fiasco, the Electoral Commission (EC) is now in frantic efforts to redeem the electoral process, prevent another polls embarrassment and of course, keep their jobs.The EC seeks amendments of existing electoral laws, a ban on amending laws with electoral implications close to an election, employ manpower equal to its new technology and lobby government and parliament to keep time in providing the monies and the laws in time. The photographic voters register will be given more time.In what was perharps the biggest electoral mess in recent history, the January 4, LC3 elections flopped miserably with voting failing in 17% of the areas.Ballot papers and other voting materials were not delivered in time, leading to polling spilling over to the next day. In some areas, there were no voting materials at all and therefore no polls. In others mispackaging resulted in materials of one area wrongly labelled and taken to another. The Voters Register was mixed up and effectively messed up with misspellings and misplacing of names, with those of one area found in another.Part of the problem, the EC says is that electoral laws were passed very late by Parliament. Drastic amendments on the Local Government Act, that included using secret ballot for LC3 elections were passed in November the very month nominations for LC3 were scheduled. This all meant the EC had one month to advertise and award the relevant tenders, print the ballots, ship them from South Africa, distribute them here and hold the election in time and without problems – an impossible task for anyone.Ministry of Finance released funds too little, too late, and as the EC was trying to come to terms with that, it learnt of new districts and parishes were created for which it had to cater. Then came the pressure of too many elections within the same period with little time in-between for preparation – Referendum in June 2000, Presidential last March 2001, Parliamentary in June, LC1 last November, LC3 January 4, LC4 January 10, and LC5 early February. All these (except LC1) had to be organised under secret ballot and it became clear (too late) that the EC had bitten more than it could chew. It was impossible to swallow but too late to spit. Inexperience understandably bred inefficiency in a Commission blinded by over confidence following greater success in previous elections. Matters were not helped by the new technology of the photographic voters register that overwhelmed EC personnel. They employed boys in S.4 and S.6 vacation (government said specialists were too expensive) to take pictures in an exercise that flopped horribly. The kids had no sound training in digital photography. Some negatives were blank, others registered half and others too dark. The project was abandoned as too late for the LC3 elections; only the names would be used as the new register. But the scanners used to transfer the data from papers to computers could read some handwritings, resulting in misspellings and misplacing of names. The scanners were abandoned and young people recruited to do it manually. Like all human beings working in a big hurry, managed to make mistakes here and there that resulted in a perfect mess.The fiasco earned the EC all-round condemnation and its chairman Aziz Kasujja was widely criticised as Uganda’s worst public servant. But sources close to the electoral process say anyone could have made the same mistakes under the circumstances.Kasujja had concentrated efforts on updating the old register, but at the last moment (late October 2000) orders came from government, to work on a photographic register. Efforts were shifted in that direction, but just then, it proved to be too much work and the EC reverted to the old register, after wasting several months. That meant that even for the 2001 Presidential and Parliamentary polls, the register was below standard. “It was clear this project needed more time, but politicians wanted to score politically, the consultants contracted wanted money quickly and Kasujja was caught in between,” said the source. EC Secretary Sam Rwakoojo and Head Legal Officer Alexandria Nkonge say the Commission seeks a ban on last minute creation of new electoral areas and amendment of laws with electoral implications. Register update will be a continuous process to avoid last-minute panic and skilled manpower equal to the new technology will be hired. The failures will hopefully be turned into opportunities for learning. “Now we know what is involved and will be more prepared next time,” says Rwakoojo. “We’ll work with government to make sure monies are released in time, so that the tender process is done transparently. If we have the laws and materials in time everything will be fine.”There is also much room for improvement in the level of honesty and patriotism. Information from the IGGs office suggests huge anomalies in the award of tenders as it becomes clear private gain has superseded public priorities. But even with all this done, the EC needs to develop a sense of independence, that involves saying ‘no’ to Government, when what Government wants could undermine the electoral process.