FDC faults EC ON voter education

Sep 16, 2020

2021 ELECTIONS |

The Electoral Commission (EC) has been accused of failing to promote voter education, which continues to affect the preparations for other political players.

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) spokesperson, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, condemned a consistent lack of information about the various elections.

"We are concerned about the lack of voter education. There is insufficient information on the electoral process. Justice Simon Byabakama and his team are sleeping on the job. That is why many elections come as a surprise to Ugandans," he said.

During the party's weekly press briefi ng in Najjanankumbi, a Kampala suburb, yesterday, Ssemujju said even the National Resistance Movement (NRM) elections are more popular than the national elections.

He said it was the reason for the low turnout in the recently concluded youth elections.

"That is why the turnout for the youth elections was less than 10%. Many people were caught unawares, just because there was no voter education," he said.

He called on the commission to roll out the necessary information for political parties and the public to know what to do.

"Can you imagine nominations for local government are about to start without suffi cient information to candidates and the public? The NRM is doing more advertising of its internal elections than the commission. These are likely to be the worst elections since nothing is organised," he said.

"Do you know that today, the entire country remembers NRM primaries more than the youth elections because of lack of information?" he asked.

The party also urged the EC to relax the COVID-19 restrictions on meetings and rallies.

"It is through the rallies and gatherings that the public gets sufficient information about elections. Candidates do more voter education than the EC," Ssemujju added.

He also raised concern over the ever-escalating cases of COVID-19, saying the Government needs to enforce the preventive measures without discrimination.

"By abandoning COVID-19 preventive measures during the NRM elections, it has set a bad example for the rest of the country. It is a coincidence that the numbers have escalated in the last two weeks of the NRM elections," he said.

"We have been seeing people lining up to vote without observing social distancing, not wearing face masks or washing their hands. After that you see them carrying the winners shoulder high around villages. This is spreading COVID-19," Ssemujju added.   

According to the health ministry statistics, Uganda has a total of confirmed 4,799 COVID-19 cases with 55 registered death and 2,256 recoveries.

Ssemujju addressing journalists during the weekly press briefi ng at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi on Monday

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