Why EC-MPs' biometric machines, new polling stations meeting flopped

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MPs will not be able to interface with the Electoral Commission (EC) this week as many had anticipated. Speaker Anita Annet Among announced during the December 2, 2025, plenary.

“I have been informed that most of the Electoral Commission members have gone for the printing of ballot papers. Honourable members, we are going to discuss with the Electoral Commission, and we will send you a message that EC will be available on such and such a day and endeavour to come,” she stated.

Adding that those who fail to show up on that respective date shall have themselves to blame, since some of them are already unopposed.

During plenary today, it should be noted that several MPs, including Leader of Opposition (LOP) Joel Ssenyonyi, had sought updates from the polling body on a range of issues, particularly the importation of Biometric Voter Verification Kits (BVVKs) for the upcoming elections. Many MPs said they had not been briefed on the kits’ origin or functionality.

“The Electoral Commission needs shillings 469 billion to create 15,256 new polling stations, in one-and-a-half months to the election. How can this be okay? We have had five years to plan for an election,” Ssenyonyi raised.

“Members of Parliament are asking questions about these machines. In the past, they have been used and never functioned, network issues, usability and so on and so forth.  But you are saying, give us money, a month and a half to elections. When is training going to happen for all stakeholders by the way, including us in this House?” he posed.

Adding that the engagement would better equip him to educate his agents on the issues to look out for. Unfortunately, he said this subject remains a grey area.

“As I did mention, I heard colleagues in the NRM (National Resistance Movement), some of them complaining that they were being rigged in their primaries. This is a concern for all of us, not just us in the Opposition. You also want to be sure that this process is fair, understandable, regardless of where you do belong,” he said.

Adding that while the machines are intended to be used mandatorily, what would happen in the event of a system failure.

An argument that instantly got the backing of Speaker Among, only to be informed about EC officials' unavailability. 

“Maybe, we need to have a training for MPs, since we are representatives of the people and we are stakeholders. Can we organise for EC to have an interaction with us, so that we get to understand what the machines do, and how they are supposed to be used? So that we go out there, able to tell the people that this is what you expect at the end of the day,” Among said.

“Actually, the EC should come out clearly. Not Government. Because the leadership of Government are all candidates,” she reiterated.

Surprisingly, even as MPs press Government for answers, many ministers, including Henry Musasizi appear equally green about the use of the Biometric Voter Verification Kits and the technologically enhanced tablets.

During Monday’s session with the Budget Committee, chaired by Patrick Opolot Isiagi, Musasizi repeatedly asked about how the devices actually work.

“Will you reconcile the number of people who have passed through the biometric machine, with the number of ballot papers. Will you do that? So that we avoid a risk,” he asked.

Minister Musasizi, Semujju clash

Triggering backlash from shadow finance minister Ibrahim Semujju Nganda.

“We were told at the beginning of this meeting that there was a cabinet meeting that approved the supplementary. I assume that the minister before us here is part of Cabinet that approved these processes. Today, it is the committee on budget looking for information to support his request before Parliament,” Semujju argued.

“Chairman, are we proceeding well, by the honourable Musasizi bringing in a supplementary and also asking questions, wasting our time?” he inquired.

Musasizi was only exonerated after the committee chairperson Isiagi who said it is within his rights to seek and compare information from the two fora. 

“You know supplementary is a process. As a minister of finance, when he goes to parliament, there are issues, he is interested in, issues of funding, macro-economic issues and so on.  Now, from here, out of curiosity, being a candidate, he hears that there are ballots which are blah blah, as a candidate. And there are also strategies which we lay either to bypass or to (laughs),” Isiagi contended.