Data from national ID register can make voters' role much better

By Crispy Kaheru

Some days back, the Registration of Persons Bill, 2014 was passed by Parliament and subsequently assented to by the President.

The law seeks to provide for: the mandatory registration of citizens of Uganda, the establishment of a National Identification Register and a National Registration and Identification Authority.

 Among other things, the new law effectively empowers Uganda’s electoral management body to use the information contained in the national identification register to compile, maintain, revise and update the national voters’ register.

 The principle of using the national ID register or database as a basis for the National Voters Register is probably one of the brilliant building blocks towards making the National Voters Register clean, credible, inclusive and representative of voters who are citizens of a particular country.

Globally, there are three major options through which voter registers are made: 1) some countries undertake periodic exclusive voter registration to come up with a voters’ roll; 2) others undertake continuous voter registration – which Uganda has been doing; and 3) lately, many countries are moving towards utilising civil/citizenry registry data to make voters’ registers – an approach that Uganda is seeking to embrace.

 The latter has through many comparative experiences, generally, led to better voter registers in many of those countries where it has been tested and tried.  As it is now, countries in Africa are becoming more comfortable with this method as an answer to the werewolf voter register issues.  It is increasingly being looked at as a sure way of creating an “inclusive” and “authentic” register, exclusively for “citizens” of a particular country.

 In Uganda, in previous elections, there have been instances where significant portions of the ‘would be electors’ have had to miss voting for no other reason than them not being registered to vote. It is anticipated that using data from the national identification register for national voter registration purposes will effectively eliminate possibilities of missing eligible voters on the register.

Inadvertently, this will probably be yet again one sure way of expanding access to the ballot box.

Globally, today, election actors are battling with the embarrassing low voter participation.  Getting everyone (or close to everyone) on to the register is a transformative way of increasing rather than restricting access to voting.

More so, considering that voting is not just a right but also a civic duty, it is critical to ensure that the first step towards the ballot is secured in the belief/assumption that all citizens of voting age must be on the voters’ roll.

 When Uganda decides to roll out this system, one important precaution that will have to be taken will be to ensure that the data from the national identification register is subjected to various and vigorous layers of (closed and public) verification to make it more accurate and reflective of the current contexts.  Such verification processes are meant to rid the register of any wrong, erroneous, and illegitimate entries – the underage, non-citizens, the dead etc.  But it is also through those processes that voters have a chance to point out any errors, make corrections, and update their voting status.

 If well effected, this voter registration option could definitely carry the advantage of giving us a more comprehensive listing of all eligible voters and consequently providing for an accurate assessment of voter turnout as a proportion of eligible voters on the Election Day.

 With due respect, I am tempted to think that this could be the silver bullet to deal with Uganda’s previous national voter register challenges.

The writer is the coordinator of  Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU)