The Electoral Commission on 28th August launched a multimedia campaign to sensitize the public about the ongoing reorganisation of polling stations, in preparation for the forthcoming 2020/2021 general elections.
The public campaign was launched at the Electoral Commission’s headquarters in Kampala by Justice Byabakama Mugenyi Simon, the Chairperson, Electoral Commission and will run from Monday September 2nd 2019 to 14th September 2019 across the country.
Justice Byabakama was flanked by Deputy Chairperson Hajjat Aisha Lubega and Commissioners Stephen Tashobya and Justine Ahabwe Mugabi as well as Commission Secretary, Sam Rwakoojo.
Speaking at the launch, Justice Byabakama said that the reorganisation is being done in accordance with Section 12 (1) (d) and Section 33 of the Electoral Commission Act as well as Section 30 (1) of the Presidential Election Act 2005, that mandates the EC to establish and operate polling stations within at least each Parish or Ward of every electoral district.
The reorganisation, he said, shall involve either splitting, merging, relocation and or renaming of polling stations. It shall also involve the creation of new polling stations where necessary.
“The reorganisation is to among other reasons ensure that each parish/ward and electoral area at Sub-County level has got at least one polling station in accordance with Sec. 33 of the Electoral Commission Act (Cap 140) and to ensure that where possible, polling stations that have far less than the optimum number of voters are merged, taking into consideration proximity of the villages, geographical features such as highlands, water bodies, swamps and distances travelled by voters to the polling stations,” he said.
Justice Byabakama also said that exercise would look at splitting polling stations with significantly more than the optimum number of voters (higher than 900 voters) into two or more polling stations, excluding Kampala and Wakiso whose optimum number could go up to 1,200 voters per station. The exercise would also merge polling stations previously split on the basis of alphabets and thereafter split them on the basis of villages instead, where applicable and there are reasonable numbers of voters to form the new polling stations.
“Suitable venues should be identified in those villages for the respective polling stations,” he said.
He also said the reorganisation exercise shall in consultation with residents, relocate polling stations that are;-
- Located in inappropriate/illegal or contestable areas e.g. Near bars;
- Located in congested areas like market places;
- Clustered in polling centres without adequate space for polling activities;
- Inconvenient for the population to cast their votes is; resulting in voters traveling long distances to vote;
- Where developments have taken place since the last reorganisation e.g. Buildings, roads, industries, factories and places that are no longer public etc.;
“These polling stations will be shifted to any other appropriate and convenient location within the parish,” Justice Byabakama said.
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The exercise will also cover the renaming of polling stations to reflect their physical locations especially where villages have been split and now have new names since the last election and in this case parish and village names will be harmonised with the corresponding polling stations so as to ensure that all the newly-created villages appear on the voters register.
“The successful conclusion of this exercise shall pave way for the update of national voters register, later this year,” he said, adding: “In order to ensure that the public is well informed, the Commission will conduct publicity and voter education programmes, across the 12 EC regions in the country. This will majorly be through live talk shows and announcements on radio and social media to reach out to the youth.”
“The commission in its work is required to exhibit maximum and optimum transparency. We want the people of Uganda to know what is taking place because this election is about them exercising their right; that is why the commission believes in transparency,” he said.
The exercise shall be overseen by, parish supervisors/reorganisation officials, Sub-county supervisors, returning officers, party agents and local leaders amongst other stakeholders.
EC Secretary, Mr. Sam Rwakoojo said that the reorganization is in recognition of the fact that since last election, “new administrative units were created by ministry of local government” and that these needed new boundaries established and new polling stations gazetted.
“This exercise that we are launching today is a process of creating those polling stations and it is an extremely important process, because without it then you won’t have a register; without a register you will not have other activities that will follow,” he said adding: “The reorganization (of polling stations) is that start of the 2020/21 electoral process. We are officially launching the 2020-2021 general elections.”
Rwakoojo said that using the same reorganized polling stations, the EC would go ahead to update and display new voters’ registers thereafter.
“We will use the same registers to do nominations at all levels from presidential to local government,” he said. All in all, he said polling stations would increase from 2,800 in the last election to about 3,500 polling stations cater for increased voters and the changes in the administrative units in the last country since the last election.
