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Why electoral offenders must pay
As election petitions pile up, those responsible for electoral malpractice should bear the cost of the disputes and repeat polls they cause, writes Haji Faruk Kirunda
Haji Faruk Kirunda. (File)
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
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OPINION
By Haji Faruk Kirunda
As the Judiciary embarks on hearing petitions challenging the election of hundreds of MPs and local council leaders arising from this year’s general election, attention will be on the courts with the trust that they will deliver justice and in good time. However, closer attention should be fixed on those responsible for the mess that leads to these petitions.
Each one of these petitions reflects dissatisfaction with the processes leading to the outcome of individual cases arising from constituencies and gazetted electoral areas. Seeking court redress is guaranteed under the Constitution, and operationalised by the Parliamentary Elections Act and Local Government Act. It is a step on the democracy ladder and the last legal frontier in electoral political contestation.
Nevertheless, judicial involvement in resolving matters of political nature is a stretch on government resources and functionality, considering the endemic backlog at the bench and general disruption of normal business. An MP or chairperson whose election is under challenge can hardly concentrate on their duties — having to prepare a defence, attend proceedings and mobilise the finances required to defend their seat. This disadvantages the constituents who need the services and undivided attention of their leaders.
It is another hole-in-the-wall for corruption. A leader, under pressure because of his or her position being on the line, is under great temptation to use the position to look for money to meet the cost of the legal challenge. That’s how some MPs demand or take bribes from institutions they are supposed to do oversight on or how leaders in the districts and cities engage in selling government jobs, contracts and extorting from (corrupt) civil servants, all to facilitate the fight for their political lives. The petitioner will be on the ground undercutting them, preparing for a possible rerun.
In constituencies where the “elected” leaders’ election is being challenged, the political season doesn’t end. Rival camps remain charged. People are tied in endless electioneering, whereas the general election season is limited to a few months of campaigns and voting, after which everyone goes back to working for a livelihood. Election messes steal people’s time and make them slaves of contestants. That’s why byelections perennially register the lowest voter turnout. It would be better if everybody did a good job and everything ended satisfactorily in the ballot box.
Let’s agree that voters don’t want to be “overworked”. Ugandans have seen democracy enough to know what is expected of them and they have diligently exercised that constitutional right for decades.
But there are traitors around, working to disrupt every gain registered since 1986. They are behind the mess that forces political contestation to stretch to the already-busy courts of law. Among them are electoral officials and presiding officers. These ones, acting on a range of motivations like having taken bribes from contestants to favour them, engage in acts that subvert electoral processes, like altering voter data and election results. They also actively engage in partisan campaigns while required to exercise impartiality like true arbiters. The tricks are many in their rule book. And they have been at it for ages, having excelled in 1980, the year of the greatest electoral heist in Uganda’s history. The current ones disturbing our elections learnt from those of 1980. And they refuse to reform. That’s why electoral disputes and the need for costly judicial adjudication persist.
To play about with a vote of a Ugandan is to play with the spirit of the Constitution of Uganda which expressly placed power in the hands of the people, under Article 1 of the Constitution.
It is another hole-in-the-wall for corruption. A leader, under pressure because of his or her position being on the line, is under great temptation to use the position to look for money to meet the cost of the legal challenge. That’s how some MPs demand or take bribes from institutions they are supposed to do oversight on or how leaders in the districts and cities engage in selling government jobs, contracts and extorting from (corrupt) civil servants, all to facilitate the fight for their political lives. The petitioner will be on the ground undercutting them, preparing for a possible rerun.
In constituencies where the “elected” leaders’ election is being challenged, the political season doesn’t end. Rival camps remain charged. People are tied in endless electioneering, whereas the general election season is limited to a few months of campaigns and voting, after which everyone goes back to working for a livelihood. Election messes steal people’s time and make them slaves of contestants. That’s why byelections perennially register the lowest voter turnout. It would be better if everybody did a good job and everything ended satisfactorily in the ballot box.
Let’s agree that voters don’t want to be “overworked”. Ugandans have seen democracy enough to know what is expected of them and they have diligently exercised that constitutional right for decades.
But there are traitors around, working to disrupt every gain registered since 1986. They are behind the mess that forces political contestation to stretch to the already-busy courts of law. Among them are electoral officials and presiding officers. These ones, acting on a range of motivations like having taken bribes from contestants to favour them, engage in acts that subvert electoral processes, like altering voter data and election results. They also actively engage in partisan campaigns while required to exercise impartiality like true arbiters. The tricks are many in their rule book. And they have been at it for ages, having excelled in 1980, the year of the greatest electoral heist in Uganda’s history. The current ones disturbing our elections learnt from those of 1980. And they refuse to reform. That’s why electoral disputes and the need for costly judicial adjudication persist.
To play about with a vote of a Ugandan is to play with the spirit of the Constitution of Uganda which expressly placed power in the hands of the people, under Article 1 of the Constitution.
Given that we are in “kisanja no sleep, no corruption”, the time is now to deal with them.
Whenever petitions are heard and concluded, in case any electoral official (presiding officer or any staff of the Electoral Commission) is found to have engaged in or facilitated electoral fraud, they should be required to meet the cost of holding a byelection (usually anything over sh500m per constituency). The Government shouldn’t suffer financial loss because of the officers’ indiscretions and collusion.
Furthermore, they should be barred from public office for at least 10 years, the way it is with those convicted on corruption charges.
MPs and other leaders, whose elections are successfully challenged and it’s proved that they engaged in malpractices, including those that issued forged academic credentials for nomination, should also pay the costs for holding byelections and be barred from holding public office for 10 years. Uganda cannot afford endless cycles of elections and squandering of taxpayers’ money on holding a repeat of elections because of the misdeeds of unserious individuals.
This is not a move to stifle democratic practice and justice, but a proposal to rid our politics and elections of unrepentant architects of fraud and erosion of hard-won democratic gains.
The writer is the special presidential assistant-press and mobilisation/deputy press secretary at State House Email: faruk.kirunda@statehouse.go.ug
Whenever petitions are heard and concluded, in case any electoral official (presiding officer or any staff of the Electoral Commission) is found to have engaged in or facilitated electoral fraud, they should be required to meet the cost of holding a byelection (usually anything over sh500m per constituency). The Government shouldn’t suffer financial loss because of the officers’ indiscretions and collusion.
Furthermore, they should be barred from public office for at least 10 years, the way it is with those convicted on corruption charges.
MPs and other leaders, whose elections are successfully challenged and it’s proved that they engaged in malpractices, including those that issued forged academic credentials for nomination, should also pay the costs for holding byelections and be barred from holding public office for 10 years. Uganda cannot afford endless cycles of elections and squandering of taxpayers’ money on holding a repeat of elections because of the misdeeds of unserious individuals.
This is not a move to stifle democratic practice and justice, but a proposal to rid our politics and elections of unrepentant architects of fraud and erosion of hard-won democratic gains.
The writer is the special presidential assistant-press and mobilisation/deputy press secretary at State House Email: faruk.kirunda@statehouse.go.ug