As the integrity of the Electoral Commission (EC) and its impartiality have come into question in recent times, the implication to the rule of law and good goverance in the country is adverse. Almost all election petitions ruled in favour of opposition petitioners have implicated the EC as a co-accused in cases of election doctoring. This has had an adverse implication to the rule of law and good governance in Uganda and surprisingly this is not only about Opossition candidates but National Resistance Movement (NRM) cadres too have cried foul over the activities of the EC.

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In Jagala an EC official was nabbed stuffing ballots for the regimeʼs candidate while in Ssembabule and Kalangala it became almost impossible to differentiate NRM mobiilisers from EC officials with one Party cadre overtaking the responsibility of security forces. The ssembabule election was a mess where violence was the norm - mostly carried out in the name of NRM. Almost all election observers in Ugandaʼs recent past have agreed on the need for a truly independent EC in all their reports but it seems these reports have heaped in the political dustbin.. For example, the SADC-Parliamentary Forum observed that since EC bodies on the continent strike as partisan or are duly compromised by the incumbent leadership, the commissioners should be selected by a panel of Judges selected by the Chief Judge or an equivalent on the basis of their caliber, public stature, respect, competence, impartiality and their knowledge of elections and political development processes. In addition, this should be after wide consultations with political parties and other stakeholders who would later be approved by parliament but not the incumbent as in Uganda. Such a commission would then have its own budget to avoid such confusion as seen in Kyadondo and Sembabule where resources were inadequate. Furthermore, the Commision should have security of tenure entrenched in the constitution. Such a commission would inspire public trust in the election process and would promote good governance on the basis of free and fair elections. Without this the EC will long be viewed as an extension of the NRM party machinery and its commissioners as party officials hired or politically assigned to rig/steal elections.

Moses Kalanzi

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