The Electoral Commission has noted with concern the misleading allegations made by Mr. Mwiru Paul, one of the candidates in the on-going by-election of Member of Parliament for Jinja Municipality East Constituency, Jinja District, concerning the integrity of the Voters Register for the Constituency.
Mr. Mwiru alleges that the National Voters’ Register for Jinja Municipality East has been inflated with two thousand and seventy two (2,072) ghost voters. He also falsely claims that three hundred and five (305) voters have been wrongly deleted from the Register.
The Electoral Commission wishes to categorically deny the allegations as false and unfounded. The Commission further wishes to clarify as follows:
The total number of voters on the Voters’ Register for Jinja Municipality East Constituency that was displayed during the period 12th – 21st February 2018 was 29,973 (twenty nine thousand nine hundred and seventy three). This total was derived from:
The total number of Voters for General Elections 2016 which was 26,421;
The total number of Voters on the Register before update was 28,493. The 2,072 voters Mr. Mwiru alleges are ghosts, were a result of continuous registration by NIRA which was done before the update exercise, and is the difference between the total number of voters at update and the total number of voters for 2016 General Elections.
During the Update exercise, the Commission captured 698 new voters whereas 656 voters were transmitted to Electoral Commission by NIRA bringing the total to 1,354 new voters. This is in accordance with Section 65(2) of the Registration of Persons Act 2015, which provides for the Electoral Commission to access the data/information from the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) for purposes of updating the National Voters’ Register;
A total number of 154 applications for transfer of voting location were received during the update exercise, out of which 151 were successfully processed.
Three (3) transfers were not processed because the applicants could not be traced on the Database;
The applications for transfer of voting location from within Jinja Municipality East Constituency were twenty five (25);
The applications for transfer of voting location into Jinja Municipality East Constituency were one hundred and twenty six (126);
The allegation that three hundred and five (305) voters were deleted from the Voters’ Register for Jinja Municipality East Constituency is utterly false. Mr. Mwiru alleges that a figure of 305 voters were deleted but he only provided 301 names, which the Commission clarifies as follows:
299 names from Main Street East Village are on the Voters Register in the following polling stations; Spire Road, Aldina and Main Street East Primary School;
The remaining two voters; one with Voter Number 60205749 and another with Voter number 55424541 are registered voters in Wakiso District and Kamuli District respectively. They are not supposed to be on the Voters Register for Jinja East Constituency therefore.
The Electoral Commission has been very transparent concerning the National Voters’ Register and all candidates have been regularly updated and the electorate has been involved in the update and display of the Register, and in the ongoing display of recommendations for deletion of ineligible persons, if any, from the Register;
The Electoral Commission totally refutes the unfounded allegations of bias and professional misconduct made by Mr. Mwiru against our election officials.
The Commission is committed to conducting this by-election in a transparent, free and fair manner, in accordance with our mandate, as we have been doing in other by-elections.
