Relocated Bududa IDPs may not vote
Feb 13, 2011
OVER 1,000 Bududa landslide survivors resettled in Kiryadongo are worried that they may not be able to vote in the general elections because the Electoral Commission (EC) has neither set up a polling centre there nor registered them.
By FRANCIS KAGOLO
OVER 1,000 Bududa landslide survivors resettled in Kiryadongo are worried that they may not be able to vote in the general elections because the Electoral Commission (EC) has neither set up a polling centre there nor registered them.
The IDPs said they expressed their concern to the Office of Prime the Minister and to Bududa local leaders but received no response. They also said they lost their voting cards during the March 1 tragedy.
They said the commission had neither conducted civil education nor recruited polling officials in their area.
When contacted yesterday, EC spokesperson Charles Ochola confirmed that the IDPs were registered in Bududa and they would have to either go back there to vote or miss out.
Ochola said the commission had written to the disaster preparedness ministry, asking them to provide the list of relocated IDPs so that they organise elections in Kiryandongo, but nothing was done.
Catherine Mutonyi, an IDP and a social worker, said on Friday that a resettlement officer in the Office of the Prime Minister conducted emergency registration on December 9, of about 1,000 eligible voters at Panyadholi IDP camp in Kiryandongo, but had not yet got back to them.
She said some of the IDPs lacked an alternative place to vote from after their villages were destroyed by the landslides, adding that some of them wanted to travel to Bududa in order to vote, but lacked money for transport.
OVER 1,000 Bududa landslide survivors resettled in Kiryadongo are worried that they may not be able to vote in the general elections because the Electoral Commission (EC) has neither set up a polling centre there nor registered them.
The IDPs said they expressed their concern to the Office of Prime the Minister and to Bududa local leaders but received no response. They also said they lost their voting cards during the March 1 tragedy.
They said the commission had neither conducted civil education nor recruited polling officials in their area.
When contacted yesterday, EC spokesperson Charles Ochola confirmed that the IDPs were registered in Bududa and they would have to either go back there to vote or miss out.
Ochola said the commission had written to the disaster preparedness ministry, asking them to provide the list of relocated IDPs so that they organise elections in Kiryandongo, but nothing was done.
Catherine Mutonyi, an IDP and a social worker, said on Friday that a resettlement officer in the Office of the Prime Minister conducted emergency registration on December 9, of about 1,000 eligible voters at Panyadholi IDP camp in Kiryandongo, but had not yet got back to them.
She said some of the IDPs lacked an alternative place to vote from after their villages were destroyed by the landslides, adding that some of them wanted to travel to Bududa in order to vote, but lacked money for transport.