NGOs claim a deliberate move by Govt to curtail civic space

NGOs|#ElectionsWatch2021|EC

KAMPALA - Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have expressed concern over the increased use of administrative procedures by the government agencies to harass and curtail their civic role.

In their joint statement issued on Wednesday, the organizations indicated that the banning and freezing of accounts of some of the NGOs such as the National Election Watch Uganda (NEW-U), the National NGO Forum and Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) frustrated their work.

"As a country, we need to redeem our human rights record and learn to respect our laws and ensure that we apply them in the right manner," the executive director of the NGO forum, Moses Isooba disclosed.

The CSOs in their report claimed that the electoral process has so far been marred with several irregularities that have the potential to affect the integrity of the election outcomes.

Isooba disclosed that the irregularities included the blocking of the Presidential hopefuls from accessing campaign venues and their subsequent arrest.

Seven days to the polls, the CSOs have raised dust insisting that the Electoral Commission (EC) must sensitise and answer all the questions put out by Ugandans on the kind of technology that will be used during election.  

The executive director of Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), Sarah Birete claimed that EC has to date not informed the country of the kind of technology that will be used.

"Ugandans up to now do not know how it is going to work, its capacity and whether it will provide proper verification of voters and the necessary backup of the necessary information that will be used for audit purposes if required," she said.

Recently President Yoweri Museveni emphasised the need for the right technology being used in the election in this country.

The President went ahead and revealed that that the EC officials that were relieved of their duties were due to the procurement of the wrong technology and failure to procure the new technology on time.

Museveni insisted that after getting them out of office, the country will be able to get the proper technology for the exercise.

"But Ugandans do not know whether this proper technology has arrived," Birete added.

Recently the EC chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama indicated that the polling officials and other Commission officials had been trained in the use of the Biometric Voter Verification (BVV) machines and the electronic transmission systems.