The display officer, who only identified herself as Samantha, said there was a low turn up since the exercise begun. She also said that a number of voters, who didn’t find their names on the register, said they wouldn’t bother checking at the neighboring stations.
There was a general low turn up for the National Voters’ Register display exercise at several polling stations in Kasese Municipality. The National Voter’s Register display exercise, which started on February 19th, 2020 at all the 34,344 polling stations countrywide, was concluded on Tuesday March 10th, 2020.
The exercise was meant to allow voters to check the correctness of their particulars on the Voters’ Register and confirm that their photographs appear against correct particulars on the register. However, Kasese municipality registered one of the lowest turn up of eligible voters who showed up to check their particulars.
A survey conducted by URN established that a considerable number of voters didn’t show up to verify their particulars. Most voters’ register display officers remained idle even on the last day of business. At Town Central (M-Z) Boma grounds in Central Division only 400 of the registered 791 voters had ticked their particulars by Tuesday afternoon, the last day of the exercise.
The display officer, who only identified herself as Samantha, said there was a low turn up since the exercise begun. She also said that a number of voters, who didn’t find their names on the register, said they wouldn’t bother checking at the neighboring stations. She disclosed that even the few voters who showed up paid little attention to the details on the register.
The situation wasn’t any different at the Municipal Health Centre station. The display officer, who also only identified herself as Rose, said close to 1500 registered voters at the center didn’t turn up to verify their particulars.
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Yokasi Kamable, a Boda boda rider and voter at Kasese primary school polling station, said he couldn’t waste time to verify his particulars yet none of the elected leaders has ever helped him to meet his day to day needs.
The Kasese District Registrar, Sulaiman Kigundu Kato confirmed the low turn up of voters to verify their particulars at various municipal polling stations. He blamed the problem on the attitude of most town dwellers have on government programs but only come out to complain at the last hour.
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Kato, who couldn’t provide any statistics, said they have been receiving daily feedback, which showed that polling stations outside the municipality registered a good turn up. Crispin Kaheru, an Election Analyst says the display of the voters’ register is one of the biggest electoral milestones that have unfortunately passed on quietly.
He says if the Electoral Commission is indeed interested in a credible election, then, it has to be seen to be accommodative to voter’s demands. He says the low turn up may have an overall impact on the next processes in the election cycle.
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According to a statement extracted from the Electoral Commission, there shall be no extension of the Voter’s register Display exercise. Following the conclusion of the Display, the Commission shall now proceed to display the lists of all persons recommended for deletion or inclusion by the Tribunal from the National Voters’ Register for a period of ten (10) days, that is, from 11th to 20th March 2020 at each respective Parish/Ward Headquarter.
Story by Basaija Idd
