Electoral Commission digs out kid voters

By John KakandeTHE Electoral Commission has unearthed a number of children who were illegally registered as voters in Sironko district during the recent photographic voters registration exercise.In a statement issued yesterday, the commission announced that photographic voters register would be used in the elections of the chairperson of Sironko, Mayuge, Mukono and Rukungiri districts to block non-eligible voters.The elections of the chairpersons in the four districts are to take place on April 11, 2002. The commission said the display of the registers in the districts would take place between March 22 and 31. It also said during the process of analysing the national photographic voters register, it was discovered there were cases of ‘under-aged voters’ registered in Sironko district. The commission named some of the under-aged voters on the register as Budala Kissa who was registered as number 01447372, Lusi Nabukonde 06146979; Annet Nafuna 07586022; and Harriet Bwailisa registered as number 07586051.The commission report said the three voters, Bwailisa, Nafuna and Bwailisa, claimed they were born in 1983, meaning they are aged 19. But Kissa’s date of birth was given as September 13, 1901, meaning he would be 101 years in September this year. The commission has warned that it is illegal to register as a voter more than once. It said several cases of double registration had been discovered in several districts. Except in Rukungiri where the elections were suspended following the murder of one of the contestants, elections in the other three districts failed because of queries on qualifications of some of the candidates.