CEW-IT GENESIS

RWECO made up of six organisations from the Rwenzori region:(Karambi Action for Life Improvement (KALI), Integrated Women Development Programme (IWDP), Goodhope Foundation for Rural Development (GHFRD), Rwenzori Information Centres Network (RIC-NET), Kabarole Research and Resource Centre (KRC) and Rwenzori Anti-corruption Coalition (RAC)); have joined PAC (from Teso), CEFORD (from West Nile) and ACORD (from Gulu) to participate actively in the election process and amplifier the citizens contributions towards election monitoring. This joint effort is named Citizens Election Watch – IT (CEW-IT).
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed among the four regional organizations and an Advisory committee to coordinate the effort has been set up. This committee includes both representatives of HIVOS and Oxfam Novib in addition to the representatives of member organization.(Photo of Members of CEW-IT advisory Committee)

 CEW-IT workshop on election observation was addressed by Mrs Nawe Molly Kamukama, head of the Voter Education and Training Department.
In her speech, she stress the following issues:
The Ugandan electoral process is based on the law. Administratively, the electoral Commission (EC) does not have much leeway apart from what is stated in the law.
EC is supposed to accredit CSOs and CBOs who are interested in voter education and are self-financing. EC accredits them to conduct civic education.The broader mandate for civic education is with Uganda Human Rights Commission.
The law limits civic education to voter education around elections period.
In preparation for the 2011 general elections,65 organizations have been accredited based on the criteria set by the electoral commission and after verification with the NGO board. Trainings have been provided to the observers as well information materials for use. CCEDU is one of those organisations that have been accredited.

The commission monitors the CSOs based submitted work plans and signs Memorandums of understanding with all accredited organisations.

The commission carries out its own civic education although most of the education being carried out during election period is voter education or information. Government of Uganda and development partners fund the civic education department. For civic education, the country is divided into 4 regions contracted out to consultancy firms to distribute EC materials developed, train people and carry out logistics.

Election observation and monitoring
The laws do not allow anybody except an election administrator to monitor elections therefore that person should be authorized by the EC or should have managed elections before. A monitor has the authority to intervene and correct an anomaly when something is going wrong in the process.
The law here allows for election observation by CSOs. CSO are allowed to observe and not intervene in the election process. A CSO has to apply to get accredited and must give a report at the end of the exercise. Some CSOs have worked with the commission through projects to carry out certain activities for example, the international Public institute carried out dialogues with EC and political parties to build the relationship between opponent parties and EC.
The commission is using information Technology. There is an electronic national voters’ register with bio data for 5 million citizens. The register can be accessed online. (http://www.ec.or.ug). This has been facilitated by USAID. In the future, citizens shall be able to query the commission database via text message to get their voter details and also receive voter information. An electronic tally system funded by DDP shall be put in pace for elections in 2011.