Misleading to call 2021 elections scientific – Electoral Commission

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The Electoral Commission, the body tasked with organizing elections in Uganda has said it is misleading to call the 2021 elections scientific. 

Speaking to Uganda Radio Network – URN, Jotham Taremwa, the Electoral Commission spokesperson said they wonder where people are getting the term scientific from in referring to the 2021 elections.   

Last week, the Electoral Commission through its chairman Justice Simon Byabakama Mugenyi announced that they were pushing ahead with the 2021 elections despite the threat from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

However as a mitigation factor, they were not going to allow mass gatherings that normally characterize the campaigning period, in order to limit the spread of the virus. It’s this ban on public campaigns that won the election, the moniker ‘scientific.’ 

The term scientific in the times of COVID-19 however was popularized by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who said that people wanting to marry, bury the dead or do any other thing that usually requires mass gathering, should do so with a very limited number of people. For marriages, he limited them to 10, while burials the number was put at 30 people, most especially family members and very close friends. 

On the other hand however, scientific is also a common slang used to mean anything that is not true or legitimate. In referring to elections, if someone says “There was science in his victory” it means that there was cheating and other malpractices that led to victory . So maybe it’s safer to conclude that the use of the word scientific in referring to this election probably dents the credibility of the election even before the first ballot is cast.

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URN