Makerere student designs a package for online voting

The official name for the package is iElector.

The iElector is more of like a website which interacts and responds with the users and has procedures which one can follow to access their accounts although is yet to be loaded online for every student to access.

He explained that for a student to access the iElector page, they must be within the range of accessing internet, enter their student number and password and for those don't have access to Wi-Fi, they can buy ten megabyte data because it does not consume a lot of data.

After voting, the system automatically tallies everything and gives accurate results unless the normal ballot paper where votes can be ridged.

 Xoddo said his plan in years to come is to have the system be used during national elections after upgrade, including other universities where opinion polls and other results can be attained although at the moment it is still used only by Makerere students for the coming guild elections.
 

How he started

After 2 to 3 months of the presidential elections, his first move was studying computer language C++ which allows one to create soft wares where he would learn and apply. However, other computer networking languages include PHP, HTML, CSS, Java Script and SQL among others.


"It is also hard to hack the website because at the moment am also working with other computer experts to encrypt the website for security purposes," he added.


Xoddo explained that the purpose for creating the package is to bring development to his country and the first to carry out online voting in Africa and the fact that he loves his country Uganda so much.

He narrates of an experience during the presidential election where he was hit by rain, wasted a lot of time, unnecessary movements among others thus he considered this very hectic.

However Xoddo stated that for the iElector once a student has voted, the ballot paper disappears back to the servers making it hard for one to cheat for another candidate. However one can be able to access the news feeds, opinion polls and see who is leading since it provides graphs with percentages about who is leading and losing.

Despite the current iElector, Xoddo explained that his future goal is to reconstruct it for android version and also upgrade to one which reads thumb print. The thumb print version will contain all information about a voter where one can just go and place their thumbs to the machines and one will have finished voting.

He added that this is to help people who fear technology, help the old aged, save time, unnecessary movements among others although there will be challenges as well.

The Makerere guild race

Makerere University has kicked off nominations of guild presidential candidates for the academic year 2017/2018.

The university elects a guild president each year to represent interests of the students in University Council meetings.

The seventeen candidates who have been nominated are expected to have a written letter from the police indicating no criminal record, a CGPA of 2.8 and above and  no pending retake in their entire academic record for the current study programme being undertaken at Makerere University.

The nomination began on 9th Thursday, march and closed on the 15th of March this year and each candidate was expected to get 100 seconders as some of the requirements to qualify for the race.

However this year`s race has three female contestants namely Nsubuga Ruth representing NRM political head and the other two independent candidates as Alituha Doreen and Lakica Mercy Faith.

Muzinga Jamilu, the personal assistant secretary to the general secretary of the EC said that open campaigns, guild debates and rallies will commence on the 23rd March this year and will last for two weeks and after the elections will begin.

He added that this year's debates will but one of a kind that has never happened before for the past years in Makerere.  There will be live debates and in studio saying that they have already signed an agreement with one radio station.
 
The general secretary of the EC, Kafuuma Joseph said that the purpose for this live debate and studios is to publicize their candidates so that they can prove what they are capable of when in front of a camera and this time not only witnessed by Makerere students only but also the entire Uganda.

Despite the fact that seventeen students have been nominated, following the daily routine as per the constitution, Kafuuma said that they have written a letter to the academic registrar to clarify those who will be denominated and finally nominated as the chosen candidates for the guild race.
 
Kafuuma explained that after the academic registrar`s office releases the final names by Tuesday this week, the names will be pinned on notice boards in different halls and schools for the candidates and students to know those who have made it.

According to last year`s guild elections the exercise was marred by irregularities, including bribery of voters. But the university electoral commission chairperson, Otuku Isaac said they have cautioned all candidates against bribery and that anyone caught in the act will be disqualified from the race.

The political party heads includes Nsubuga Ruth representing NRM, Kato Paul for FDC, Karamagi William for DP and Isaac Ongom Adero for UPC and the rest are independent candidates. The students and electoral body are just waiting to witness who will take over as the 83rd guild president.

However on the other hand, Kafuuma said that as the electoral body, they have found out a new way of keeping students up to date with opinion polls about their candidates.

He explained that an agricultural student from the school of food science and technology, Xoddo Paul has designed an online voting system, more so of a website style where a student can login with their student number and password and is able to access his or her candidate.

Kafuuma stated that the purpose for the online voting is to only have a view of opinion polls from the different aspirants but the real voting will be by use of ballot papers as usual.