The Uganda Electoral Commission (EC) is launching the online voter register this Wednesday August 25^th at Africana Hotel. The online register is a result of support by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) to the Uganda Electoral Commission, and the project is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Uganda Electoral Commision Chairman, Eng. Badru Kiggundu

According to Harriet Busingye Muwanga, the Governance Program Advisor at USAID/Uganda, the online voters register project aims to enhance transparency and accountability in the election management process and increase voter confidence in the electoral process in the forth coming 2011 general elections.

“The purpose was to support the voter registration process and enhance the credibility of the Voter Register by strengthening access to the register and providing it on-line,” she said in a statement.

Weinformers.net is brining you live coverage of launch of Uganda Electoral Commission online Voters register. You can also contribute and follow the event live via twitter. The hashtag for the event is #Uganda Voters Register. You do not need to be logged in to comment or ask questions and our team shall be at hand to answer all possible queries.

The event will be addressed by the EC Secretary, Sam A. Rwakoojo, EC Chairman, Engineer Dr. Badru M. Kiggundu and his Excellence Jerry P. Lanier, Ambassador of the United States of America in Uganda. The Chief Guest is Hon. Fred Ruhindi, Uganda’s Deputy Attorney General and Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs.

Welcome to the live coverage of the launch of the Electoral Commission online voters register

The Secretary General of the Electoral Commission Sam Rwakojo started with welcoming all those that have come to this launch. He has said he is happy with the progress of the Electoral Commission in terms of using advanced technology in the management of Elections in the country.

He has given the history of the EC from the time it started with voters’ registers that were simply hand written through the times when they were gotten from handwritten to being typed. They then introduced photos into the voters register which has now led to the introduction of the online voters register.

Then the Chairman of the EC Badru Kiggundu has congratulated USAID for the support it has given to the EC in developing this advanced technology. He has also told the participants that the register will be read only and so cannot be changed by any other person apart from the EC workers who are authorized to do that work. He has promised that the EC will soon launch an SMS invention such that voters can be able to access their particulars on the voters’ register just by text using their phones.

US Ambassador to Uganda H. E Jerry P. Lainer addressing the people who gathered at the launch of the EC online voter register

US Ambassador to Uganda H. E Jerry P. Lainer addressing the people who gathered at the launch of the EC online voter register

The US Ambassodor expressed delight over the fact that the partnership between the EC and USAID had born fruits within a very short time and he hopes this new development of the EC will be embraced by Ugandans.

The State Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs who has presided over the launch of the EC online registration as the chief guest and he came on to officially launch the online voters register.

The Questions session begins

Chirs Opoka the UPC Secretary General gets the first chance. He welcomes the online voter register but asks what its relevance is when the EC register has not been cleaned of the irregularities reported by different partie?

JEEMA Presidential Candidate Hussein Kyanjo welcomes the online …but going online without answering major questions raised by stakeholders like how to know non Ugandans who registered?

Abed Bwanika asks EC to Avail softcopy of the voters register with pictures of the people..how are they going to strike out the names of the dead and wrongly registered more than once? Is the EC going to keep updating the register online

Kenneth Kakande from DP asks whether the process of one finding their name can be made easier unline the current cumbersome process of going through many stages

Kiggundu answers …Chris Opoka from UPC ..some people not agreeing with displaying of pictures, make sure you have the particulars right of the person you are checking and you can ascertain whether they belong to that area where they are registered as a voter.

Those who want softcopy …might play with it and change it…so it can only be available at the Electoral commission since everyone who takes a soft copy can manaipulate it for their own benefit and keep confusing the public.

Those who find the process cumbersome can access it direct through Google search by typing their name in the search and will land on their particular details.

Rwakoojo…the law provides for 10 days within which names recommended for removal will be removed but after the person has a chance to defend themselves if the person does exist. So someone has to go to the Elections tribunal to make sure the person they want removed has been removed or to ensure the person is not removed if they were wrongly recommended for removal.

Ngobe from National Union party…why resort to online when the paper register is not yet cleaned

Emmanuel Tumusiime of Forum for Integrity in leadership says this is wastage of voters registers

Other people say too many details have been provided

Rachel Kamali , Director Democracy Monitoring group…when will the register be clean, how will people know? Can people still change where they can voter from?

Kiggundu explains that EC will continue to update the register and work with all stakeholders at every stage

Rwakoojo explains started with 10.5m in 2006, total now is 15 million plus Uganda …the public should make sure the dead are removed, the foreigners are removed…don’t compare the voters register with the population census which was carried out long ago

Fred Ruhundi promises the government’s commitment top ensure the register is cleaned and the concerns of all stakeholders are taken into account.