EC Starts Displaying Voters’ Register ahead of By-elections

The Independent Electoral Commission (EC) has today, November 8th, 2021, started displaying the National Voters’ Register ahead of upcoming by-elections in the respective Local Governments.

According to a statement issued by the Chairperson EC, Justice Simon Byabakama, the public display for the voters’ register in various electoral areas across the country where Local Govt Councils by-elections are scheduled to take place, officially starts today and will run until 17th November.

“The display exercise begins at 8:00am and ends at 6:00pm at all Polling Stations in the affected electoral areas on each of the appointed dates, including weekends,” the statement reads.

According to Byabakama, the purpose of this exercise is to allow the voters confirm the particulars on the register, raise objections to the inclusion and/or removal of a voter's particulars from the Register and also report for removal; those who died, below 18 years, and those who appear more than once etc.

During this voter’s register display period, the Commission will also issue temporary Voter Location Slips (VLS) to voters, to enable them conveniently locate their respective polling station on polling day. After the display exercise, the Electoral Commission shall for a period of 6 days also display the lists of all persons recommended for deletion from the National Voters’ Register from 18th to 23rd November at the respective Parish or Ward Headquarters within the said electoral areas.

The nomination of candidates for the by-elections is slated to take place on 29th and 30th November and nomination for Special Interest Groups Councilors’ and district Chairpersons elections will take place on 15th and 16th December, respectively. Last month, High Courts across the country concluded hearing of election petitions that arose from the January 14, 2021 general elections.

The Courts which commenced hearing of these cases on August 16th handled 155 Parliamentary and Local Council election petitions in the different High Court circuits across the country with the help of 32 judges assigned by the Principal Judge, Dr. Flavian Zeija to expedite the handling of these election petitions.