CCEDU decries low turn-up for voters' register update

By Alfred Wandera

An election observer body that has spearheaded the national sensitization of voters to register and verify their details in the ongoing voters register update exercise has decried low turn up of citizens.

The Project Associate for Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), Faridah Lule, told journalists on Wednesday evening that most Ugandans are not aware of the ongoing voter register update, explaining the low turn up.

Lule was speaking in Kansanga, a Kampala suburb, during CCEDU's second last Votability Campaign road show that is aimed at sensitizing the public to register as voters and verify their bio-data ahead of 2016 polls.

Lule said CCEDU will hold its last sensitization drive this weekend at Kasangi in Wakiso district.

CCEDU's observation contradicts the Electoral Commission's (EC) position issued on Wednesday morning by its chairman, Dr. Badru Kiggundu, that there has been high numbers of people queuing up to update their details.

Kiggundu told journalists at the EC headquarters in Kampala that they had extended deadline for updating the national voters' register to May 4 in order to give opportunity to more Ugandans to update their details ahead of the elections.

Joseph Kalule, 23, a boda boda cyclist and a resident of Namuwongo, a Kampala suburb, who turned up for CCEDU's Votability Campaign road show in Kansanga, said he has not had time to verify his voter details because of his busy work schedule.

"But tomorrow, I will go and verify my details to prove that I am a Ugandan and ready to participate in the elections," said Kalule.

Jamila Nagawa, 18, a Senior Six vacist and resident of Kansanga, told New Vision that she had not gone to verify her details because she was in Bushenyi for holidays and had just returned to Kampala. But she was upbeat of turning up the following day at her parish center to ensure that her name is on the voters register.

The update of the voters register started on April 7 and had been scheduled to close on Thursday.

Kiggundu said the national voters register used during the 2011 elections and by-elections was retired and degazetted on March 31, meaning it cannot be used for election.

The particulars for the national voters' register were extracted from the database of the National Identity Card Project, in which Ugandans above the age of 16 registered to get identity cards.

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