Mayuge misses byelection

May 18, 2010

THE Electoral Commission chairman, Badru Kiggundu, has said the commission will not conduct any more byelections to fill vacant LC5 and mayoral posts in districts and municipalities.

By Betty Angatai

THE Electoral Commission chairman, Badru Kiggundu, has said the commission will not conduct any more byelections to fill vacant LC5 and mayoral posts in districts and municipalities.

Kiggundu said due to the ongoing national update of the voters’ register, the vacant district LC5 posts in Mayuge, Masindi, Kabale and the mayoral seat in Masaka municipality should wait for the general elections in 2011.

Addressing Mayuge district councillors and civil servants last week at the district headquarters, Kiggundu said the electoral body will not fill the vacant posts due to the enormous amount of work.

“It would be irresponsible of us to suspend the ongoing process of updating voters’ registers and resort to carrying out byelections,” he added.

Kiggundu was reacting to demands by the Mayuge district councillors to hold a byelection for the post of the district LC5 chairman.

The post fell vacant after the High Court sentenced the then chairman, Bakali Tigawalana Ikoba, to death for murder.

Kiggundu said even if the byelections were budgeted for, there is not enough time to carry them out. He explained that the byelections go through a long process before they are held and even if all efforts were committed to the elections, the voting would not be held till late September.

Kiggundu informed them that this would render the completion of the voters’ registers impossible before the general elections hence creating a crisis.

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