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Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda Christian University- UCU students have called for fresh guild elections citing irregularities in the online voting system.
UCU conducted online elections for guild leaders for Mukono and Kampala campuses on Wednesday using a new app named ‘e-Chagua’, conjoined from a Kiswahili word meaning voting.
The system is designed with a voter’s registers section where student details are recorded and once the student is on a voter’s register, the system accepts him to generate a password to log in and vote once.
Kenneth Agaba Amponda was elected Guild President with 1,229 votes against Jim Patrick Wasswa who got 449 votes. At the Kampala campus Desire, Phoebe Namujehe went through unopposed.
However, some of the students at the campus claim that the entire voting exercise was marred by irregularities. They want the university administration to nullify the results and conduct fresh elections.
The exercise that was scheduled to start at 8 am with the briefing of agents and flashing of the e-system instead started at around 11 am. This forced the students’ electoral commission to extend the voting hours to 8 pm from 5 pm.
The Electoral Desk did the last update of the voter’s register of about 500 students on the polling day.
Out of the 8,086 eligible voters, only 1,959 managed to cast their vote. Denis Turyahebwa, a student says the electoral commission did not do enough sensitization among students on how to vote online.
Several students complained about poor internet connectivity and delayed generation of the password to access the ballot.
Graham Arinda the students’ Electoral Commission Chairperson attributes delays and low turn up to students who activated their accounts late and others who completely failed.
The Director of Students Affairs, Bridget Mugasira asked the contestants who lost to accept defeat and work with the university to make the new online voting system work better.
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