KAMPALA – The Electoral Commission has revealed that the display of the National Voters’ Register in 135 districts countrywide will begin on Wednesday, February 19 up to March 10, 2020 in preparation for the 2020-2021 General Election.
The display of the Voters’ Registers for youth, Persons with Disability (PWD) and older persons will also commence on Wednesday, February 19 and end on February 28.
Addressing journalists in Kampala on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, Justice Simon Byabakama, the EC Chairperson, said the display of the Voters’ Register shall begin at 8:00 am and end at 6:00 pm on each of the appointed dates including weekends, at all polling stations throughout Uganda.
He revealed that the purpose of this display exercise is to enable voters to check for the correctness of their particulars on the Voters’ Register, Confirm that their photographs appear against correct particulars on the Register and Raise objections to the inclusion and/or removal of a voter’s particulars from the Register.
Justice Byabakama added that the purpose of this display exercise is to report to the Display Officer, the following categories of persons (if they appear on the Register) for removal: Those who have died; Those who are under 18 years of age; Those who reside or originate from a parish other than the one they are registered in; and, Those who appear more than once on the Voters’ Register.
“During this exercise, the Electoral Commission will display lists of persons who were recommended for deletion from the National Voters’ Register during the Verification Exercise which was conducted at village level in October 2019. Please note that any eligible voter who applied for registration but whose particulars are missing on the Voters’ Register, will be able to present his/her case and seek to be included on the Register,” he said.
Justice Byabakama added that after the display exercise, the lists of all persons recommended for deletion from the National Voters’ Register, shall also be displayed for a period of ten (10) days, that is, from 11th to 20th March 2020 at the respective Parish/Ward Headquarters.
“The purpose of this supplementary display exercise is to enable any person who may have been wrongly recommended for deletion to raise an objection to the Parish/Ward Tribunal. The Parish/Ward Tribunal shall consider and make the final decision concerning recommendations for inclusion, deletion, or correction made by the public. At the end of the entire exercise, all returns will be retrieved from the field and recommendations effected by the Electoral Commission. A final National Voters’ Register for the 2020/2021 General Elections will then be produced,” he said.
The EC Chairperson warned that fresh application for registration as a voter or application for transfer to another voting location shall not be accepted during this Display exercise.
Justice Byabakama added that persons who have applied and changed their particulars on the National Identification Register, for example, the names and/or date of birth, are required to notify the Electoral Commission in writing about the changes.
“Such persons will be required to provide relevant supporting documents to our Display Officers so that the changes are effected on the Voters’ Register,” he said.
He added that display officers shall be physically stationed at the respective polling station, throughout the entire display period to enable voters conveniently locate their polling station.
Justice Byabakama said the Electoral Commission conducted stakeholder workshops in each of the 12 electoral regions of Uganda and met with respective district leaders to underscore the importance of participating in this exercise.
He revealed that at the commencement of the Display exercise, the number of Districts in Uganda is 135, Number of Counties is 257, Number of Constituencies is 296 and No. of Sub Counties/Towns/Municipal Divisions is 2,062. The number of Parishes is 10,029, Number of Villages: 68,733, Number of Polling Stations: 34,344 and Number of Registered Voters: 17,782,594
