The Uganda Electoral Commission has announced it will from Friday December 17th to Monday December 20th be carrying out a national youth voters’ register update exercise at all polling stations in the country.
Uganda Electoral Commision Chairman, Eng. Badru Kiggundu
The EC Chairman, Eng. Dr. Badru Kiggundu says all youths aged from 18 to 30 years as of December 20th should go to their respective polling stations to check whether their names are on the national youth voters’ register, and if not they should register.
He says the EC has already extracted names of people aged 18 to 30n years from the national voters’ register and included them in the national youth voters’ register which will be displayed at all polling stations within the four days.
The national youth voters’ register will help in the election of national youth council’s which were recently changed to adult suffrage where youth leaders will now be voted by all youths registered to vote.
Here is the verbatim statement from the Electoral Commission on Update of the National Youth Voters’ Register, 17-20th December 2010
In preparation for conducting the Youth Councils/Committees Elections 2010/2011, the Electoral Commission has appointed 17th December until 20th December 2010 as the period for update of the National Youth Voters’ Registers.
The update exercise shall be conducted at a designated place in each village throughout the country, starting at 9:00am until 6:00pm on each of the appointed dates, including week-ends.
Members of the public, and particularly the youth, are urged to carefully note the following:
1. This exercise is strictly for purposes of updating the National Youth Voters’ Register;
2. The Electoral Commission has compiled the National Youth Voters’ Register (NYVR) by extracting the names of all voters who are already on the National Voters’ Register (NVR), and are from 18 to below 30 years of age, as at 20th December 2010.
3. The names of these voters have been compiled into Village Youth Registers according to the respective villages where they are registered on the National Voters’ Register;
4. Therefore, during this exercise, youths shall turn up at their respective Village Update Centre in person, and check the Register to confirm that their particulars appear (on that Register), and if not, correct or include them.
5. All persons who are from 18 to below 30 years of age (Youth), and are not on the Youth Register (which was extracted from the National Voters’ Register), and are willing to be members of Village Youth Council, shall also be registered for inclusion on the National Youth Voters’ Register during this update exercise.
6. A person shall qualify to be registered as a youth if that person is a citizen of Uganda, aged from 18 to below 30 years, and originates from or resides in that village.
7. For the avoidance of doubt, persons (Youths) who are registering anew for purposes of the Youth Councils/Committees Elections 2010/2011 shall not appear in the National Voters’ Register, which was compiled for purposes of Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Council Elections.
Hence this exercise shall not affect the status of the National Voters’ Register in any way.
8. All Youths who do not turn up for the exercise but appear on the Update Register will be deemed to be willing to belong to the Youth Council and their particulars will be left on the register for polling, unless they withdraw (in writing) their willingness to participate (in the Youth Councils/Committees Elections).
9. The following shall also be done during this exercise:
a. Youths who wish to move/transfer to new voting locations shall fill the relevant form, and the transfer will be effected.
b. Recommendations shall also be made for deletion of persons who are no longer eligible to be on the National Youth Voters’ Register, that is:
• The over-age (30 years and above) and under-age (below 18 years, if any);
• The dead;
• Those who left area;
• Those who neither reside nor originate from the village; and,
• The non-citizens (if any).
Eng. Dr. Badru M. Kiggundu
Chairman, Electoral Commissio