EC: we made some mistakes in polls but forgive us

Nov 03, 2016

“As a commission, we apologize to Ugandans in case we erred anywhere during the electoral process."

PIC: EC chairman Eng Kiggundu (far right), EC secretary Rwakoojo (second from right) mingle with journalists at the workshop. (Credit: Charles Achoda)

KAMPALA - Electoral Commission boss Eng. Badru Kiggundu has apologized to Ugandans over irregularities in the 2016 general elections.

"As a commission, we apologize to Ugandans in case we erred anywhere during the electoral process. Otherwise we tried and did our best to ensure fairness in the process," he said.

Kiggundu was speaking in Kampala at a post-election evaluation workshop on media coverage of the 2016 general elections.

He said Ugandans should feel free and come up with constructive criticism on what the Electoral Commission did not do, errors committed and what should be done to ensure free and fair election process in Uganda because the product that comes out of the elections is for all of us, good or bad.

 "This is a task that we all undertake and we cannot do it alone. We all must undertake."

Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni retained power after beating seven other presidential hopefuls, including his long-term political rival Dr. Kizza Besigye.

"We are all human and in case of any error somewhere whether in terms of delays in ballot delivery, deployment, returns and others, we apologise and we all learn from mistakes," said the EC chairman.

 "People should know that in the whole of the world, there is no nation which has ever held perfect elections including even the USA."

Kiggundu said Ugandans should always learn to give credit where it's due instead of criticizing each and everything - whether good or bad.

He said the elections were successfully done, noting that nobody tampered with their database by way of hacking the system.

"We took high levels of confiscated technology to ensure that nobody tampers with our database. For the upcoming commission, you must be prepared to take on the changing levels of technology to avoid problems in the process."

Meanwhile, Kiggundu commended the media for their coverage of the polls, saying that this time round, the media tried to be balanced in their coverage.

On his part, the EC secretary, Sam Rwakoojo, said that following the mistakes, the commission is currently embarking on mobilizing and planning for a successful electoral process in 2021.

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