The Electoral Commission has said the National ID will not be used during the general election in 2021, but one must have a National Identification Number form.
The commission vice chairperson, Hajat Aisha Lubega disclosed this during a meeting with electoral officials at Imperial Royale hotel in Kampala on Monday that discussed plans for the next elections.
“Every Ugandan should have an ID but the major, the guiding and the important document that the election commission has to carry out an election exercise is the voters’ register, every voter should ensure that they have been registered as voters,” she said.
Adding that, the Electoral Commission has set Tuesday September 02, 2019 to September 14th 2019 as the time for the demarcation of electoral areas for local government councils and re-organisation of polling stations in Uganda and newly-created municipalities, municipal divisions, town councils and sub counties, wards and parishes.
She said the Commission is mandated under section 10, 23,108,109 and 110 of the local government act (cap243) to demarcate electoral areas for representation.
The remarks came in the wake of different politicians rallying Ugandans to acquire national identification cards as one of the requirement to vote come 2021.
Among them is the leader of People Power, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine.
She noted that for one to be eligible to vote he or she should put the following into consideration.
- One must be a citizen of Uganda with a National Identification number or NIN.
• One should ensure that he or she belongs to an electoral area of residence.
. Verify the polling station he or she will vote.
• Check the details in the National Voters register when it’s displayed.
• If your name is not on the register, present the IDS or NIN to be added during the updates.
She noted that the demarcation of the new electoral areas and reorganisation of polling stations will be conducted on 3rd to 14th September 2019.
“Whatever we demarcate, we display and we expect people to keep on checking on our displayed list to see whether this is exactly what we agreed on,” she said.
Demarcation of electoral areas is the process of identifying and creating electoral areas for purposes of representation of citizen in accordance with the law. Whereas, reorganization of polling stations involves placing voters in the right polling stations in an electoral area.
The purpose is to enable voters to easily access their polling stations during the national voter’s register update exercise and voting. According to Lubega, they are currently sensitizing the stake holders on the General elections roadmap, demarcation of electoral areas and reorganization of polling stations.
Lubega says no one will be allowed to vote as long as they don’t appear on the voter’s register even if they have national identity cards.
Gerald Siranda, the Democratic Party Secretary General, said the time allocated for registration and display of the voter’s register is insufficient.
Chrispin Kaheru, the Coordinator Citizen Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda-CCEDU, asked Electoral Commission to consider the number of people in the areas when they are demarcating and reorganizing the polling station.
Kaheru added that the stake holders should pay a lot of attention to the demarcation of electoral areas to avoid ghost polling station and villages.
