The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Electoral Commission is currently verifying signatures of supporters of presidential aspirants.
According to the Presidential Elections Act, a person becomes a presidential candidate only after among others presenting signatures from 100 registered voters each from among two-thirds of all districts that make up Uganda. This translates to 9,800 signatures.
As of Wednesday, only 10 aspirants of the 22 who had submitted supporter signatures and had been verified and cleared paving way for their nomination next week. Those verified include Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of the National Resistance Movement, Henry Kakurugu Tumukunde, Mwesigye Fred, Mayambala Willy, Kabuleta Kiiza Joseph, Katumba John and Kalemba Nancy Linda all independent aspirants. Others are Patrick Amuriat Oboi of Forum for Democratic Change, Mugisha Muntu Gregg of the Alliance for National Transformation and Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert of the National Unity Platform.
Supporters of Kyagulanyi had started getting pensive about their candidate taking long to be cleared with the clock ticking to next week when nominations are supposed to be held.
According to Paul Bukenya, the spokesperson of the Electoral Commission, the inconsistencies between the signatures brought by aspirants with the records available at the Electoral Commission is what is causing delays in clearing aspirants.
He said that when signatures are brought to the commission, an aspirant or their agent is booked a day when their file is going to be handled. Files are arranged in their order each corresponding to the district where the signatures were collected from. The signature form normally has the district where they were collected from, the name, national identification number and signature of the nominator as they appear on the voter identity card.
The form also has a provision for the telephone contact of the person nominating an aspirant who according to Bukenya would be called to verify whether he/she was the one who nominated such an aspirant. At verification, the Electoral Commission officer handling the exercise in the presence of the aspirant or his/her agent then enters both the name and the registration number of the nominator in the Electoral Commission database. If this information matches, then that entry is accepted and then flagged to avoid double entry by another candidate. This is done for all the required 100 signatures from a particular district.
According to Bukenya, it doesn’t matter how many signatures an aspirant brings, for as long as it clocks the mandatory 100 signatures for a district, they stop the entry and return the forms to the aspirant. Asked what was wrong with Kyagulanyi’s signatures, Bukenya said he couldn’t go in specifics because of confidentiality considerations.
On Thursday, the Electoral Commission invited aspirants whose supporter signatures have been verified to a meeting.
“We are inviting those aspirants who have been verified to give them a brief so that they can adequately prepare for nominations. I don’t want to pre-empt the detailed discussion we are going to have but it’s very important to take them through the detailed program as they prepare to meet us on Monday and Tuesday,” Bukenya said.
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