Voter register: Court gives EC two weeks to file defence

Court has granted the Election Commission (EC) two weeks to file its defence in a case regarding the closure of the exercise of updating the national voters' register one year before the general election.

This was after the Attorney General's representative, Mark Muwonge, on Tuesday (September 1) told the Civil Division of the High Court, presided over by Justice Musa Ssekaana, that they were served with a copy of the pleadings late.

Muwonge said they did not have time to file a response. Also present in court were petitioner Gloria Linda Nagami and her lawyers George Musisi and Denis Atwijukire.

The EC was not represented. In a suit filed in July, Nagami seeks a declaration that EC's conduct of closing the exercise of updating the national voters register amounts to disfranchisement of the persons who have attained 18 years of age between December 2019 and 2020.

She contends that EC is blocking more than two million citizens from participating in the electoral process. Nagami, 25, filed her application with the help of public interest lawyers from Pace Advocates.

Last year, the EC announced the updating of the national voter's register that started on November 21 to December 11, throughout the entire country.

But the exercise was extended twice on grounds of the weather conditions at the time and allowing those who had not met the deadline to also participate.

The exercise closed on December 23 and was followed by the display of the national voters register which also ended on March 10, 2020. The display exercise was meant to enable voters to check for the correctness of their particulars on the register and to raise objections as to their inclusion or removal from the register.

However, Nagami contends that since then, 972,400 Ugandans have turned 18 years of age in 2020 and will be disenfranchised in the forthcoming elections. Nagami is relying on the Population Projections of Uganda (2015-2030) report released early this year by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics where it indicated that about 4.98 million people were aged between 15 and 19 years.

EC had also projected to have 19.4 million voters for the 2021 general election, but EC chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama recently told journalists that they had 17.7 million registered voters for 2021 elections.

Nagami contends that they first wrote to the commission to extend the period of updating the national voters register to no avail.

They now state that the conduct of EC depriving them the said right is illegal and infringes on their fundamental rights and is in violation of several laws that provide that every citizen aged 18 years and above is legible to participate in elections.

They want the court to order EC to immediately take all the necessary steps to ensure that the citizens affected by its conduct can register and exercise their right to vote in the forthcoming and subsequent general elections.