Display of voters register good for electoral process
THE on-going display of the national voters’ roll has numerous underlying attributes towards a clean election. The essence of the exercise is to ensure that those who are supposed to appear on the register do so correctly and those who are not supposed to appear do not.
Crispy Kaheru
THE on-going display of the national voters’ roll has numerous underlying attributes towards a clean election. The essence of the exercise is to ensure that those who are supposed to appear on the register do so correctly and those who are not supposed to appear do not.
This entails three simple levels at which the voters need to interact with the display process.
At level one, the voter should go to check if his or her name appears correctly on the voters roll; at level two, the voter should be vigilant and report to the display officials those persons who are not supposed to appear on the register.
Under the category of those who appear illegitimately on the register includes people below 18 years, the non-citizens, those who have passed on and those belonging to another parish.
The third level of interaction necessitates that a voter encourages fellow voters to participate in checking their data on the voters’ roll.
The display of the register can, therefore, only achieve its objective of guaranteeing the right to individual suffrage if the citizens play their part right.
Some countries like Russia, Romania and Slovakia do not publicly display their voters register. Their justification for this has always been linked to the sensitivity of citizens’ data contained on the voters’ list. This consequently implies that the citizens are unable to cross-examine the voters roll in these countries.
In Uganda, the law provides for easy access to the register for all citizens especially during the display period.
Now that Uganda is one of those few countries where access to the register is relatively simple, the citizens should view this period as their only chance to subject the register to a thorough test of validity.
The stakes are high for the 2011 election; every part of the electoral cycle is important in reducing the possibilities of vote rigging, electoral fraud and violence.
Whereas the Electoral Commission is struggling to fulfill its mandate, various stakeholders need to advise their respective constituencies on their role at every stage.
Political parties, civil society, media, and government institutions have an immense task of explaining to the public the importance of each electoral phase.
The search for a free, fair and transparent democratic election is tested at every stage of the electoral cycle.
It is during the display exercise that political interests intersect with technical processes in a bid to generate a final voters’ roll. It is, therefore, a critical duty of the citizenry to ensure that the efficiency and actual or perceived equity of this exercise is not thrown into doubt.
The integrity of the voters’ roll determines the legitimacy of an electoral system. Cleaning up the register is a simple and easy to achieve goal as long as every individual is clear about his or her role.
The on-going display exercise will only be truly meaningful if citizens realise that it is their opportunity to control the electoral process.
The writer is the project coordinator at the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda
THE on-going display of the national voters’ roll has numerous underlying attributes towards a clean election. The essence of the exercise is to ensure that those who are supposed to appear on the register do so correctly and those who are not supposed to appear do not.
This entails three simple levels at which the voters need to interact with the display process.
At level one, the voter should go to check if his or her name appears correctly on the voters roll; at level two, the voter should be vigilant and report to the display officials those persons who are not supposed to appear on the register.
Under the category of those who appear illegitimately on the register includes people below 18 years, the non-citizens, those who have passed on and those belonging to another parish.
The third level of interaction necessitates that a voter encourages fellow voters to participate in checking their data on the voters’ roll.
The display of the register can, therefore, only achieve its objective of guaranteeing the right to individual suffrage if the citizens play their part right.
Some countries like Russia, Romania and Slovakia do not publicly display their voters register. Their justification for this has always been linked to the sensitivity of citizens’ data contained on the voters’ list. This consequently implies that the citizens are unable to cross-examine the voters roll in these countries.
In Uganda, the law provides for easy access to the register for all citizens especially during the display period.
Now that Uganda is one of those few countries where access to the register is relatively simple, the citizens should view this period as their only chance to subject the register to a thorough test of validity.
The stakes are high for the 2011 election; every part of the electoral cycle is important in reducing the possibilities of vote rigging, electoral fraud and violence.
Whereas the Electoral Commission is struggling to fulfill its mandate, various stakeholders need to advise their respective constituencies on their role at every stage.
Political parties, civil society, media, and government institutions have an immense task of explaining to the public the importance of each electoral phase.
The search for a free, fair and transparent democratic election is tested at every stage of the electoral cycle.
It is during the display exercise that political interests intersect with technical processes in a bid to generate a final voters’ roll. It is, therefore, a critical duty of the citizenry to ensure that the efficiency and actual or perceived equity of this exercise is not thrown into doubt.
The integrity of the voters’ roll determines the legitimacy of an electoral system. Cleaning up the register is a simple and easy to achieve goal as long as every individual is clear about his or her role.
The on-going display exercise will only be truly meaningful if citizens realise that it is their opportunity to control the electoral process.
The writer is the project coordinator at the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda