Few Voters Pick Cards

By Charles Ariko and Solomon Muyita MOST polling centres yesterday reported a low turn up of voters to pick their voter cards for today's parliamentary elections. A survey carried out by The New Vision in Wakiso district and Kampala suburbs indicated that less than half of the registered voters had picked their voter cards by yesterday afternoon. In some of the areas, the low turn-up was blamed on the alleged recent Electoral Commission statement which allows voters to vote without the voter cards provided they can identify themselves at the polling centres. In Kigandazi zone, Bweyogerere, Wakiso district, only 150 out of 929 registered voters had picked their voter cards by mid-day while only 400 out of 1,099 had picked theirs in Ntinda parish by 1:00pm. A polling official at Kireka Rehabilitation Centre, Winnie Mugerwa, said only 100 out of 884 registered voters had picked their cards. The Makindye division Returning Officer, Grace Tabuzibwa, said only 40% of the registered voters had picked their cards since the exercise started last week. Voters' registers in some of the polling stations revealed that the names of some voters appeared more than once and had a corresponding number of voter cards. Polling officials said in such instances, they were issuing only one card to each voter and retaining the others. A polling official in Bweyogerere central zone said although they had crossed out some names during the display of the national voters' register last month, the names still appeared in the new register. Ends