CEFORD organized a post election dialogue meetings in Arua (for the districts of Arua, Nebbi, Zombo, Maracha and Koboko) on 8th June 2011. Participants in the meeting included the RDC, District Chairpersons, MPs represented by their political assistants, District Registrars of the Electoral Commission, Political Party representatives, elected leaders, religious leaders, traditional and cultural institutions, the media and CSOs. The meeting was attended by 79 (67m & 12f) participants.
The dialogue meeting was called to reflect on the 2011 general elections, identify lessons learnt, challenges and recommendations for the future.
The Ag: Executive Director CEFORD Ms, Asikpwe Jean informed stake holders that, CEFORD observed the 2011 general election in all the 8 districts of West Nile and the preliminary report was disseminated to the stake holders in April 2011. The dialogue meeting was called to reflect on the issues that transpired during the election process and suggest solutions that the elected leaders can take on to develop the region.
The meeting held at the CEFORD Auditorium, was officially opened by the District Chairman Arua Hon Wadri Sam Nyakua. In his address he noted that the electoral exercise although tedious was peaceful and bloodless a tribute he gave to all stakeholders.
The dialogue was kick started with an overview of the CEWIT observation report on 2011 General Elections which was presented by the National Coordinator – Mr. James Mwirima.
The issues he pointed out were:
· Peaceful nature of the election
· Falling short of international standards
· Poor training and remuneration of electoral officials
· Poor management of voters registrar
· Lack of vigilance among the political parties as they had few agents who were poorly facilitated and failed to provide evidence on the alleged bribery.
· Poor handling of polling materials and facilitation of polling officials
Various challenges were presented by the stake holders and some recommendations were suggested to overcome the challenges to ensure 2016 general elections are better than 2011.
Some of the recommendations proposed were:
Electoral commission
- Increased and timely funding for Electoral processes.
- Facilitating polling officials prior to the election day
- Review of the electoral laws
- Have in place an independent electoral commission
- Voter education to be provided by CSOs and FBOs
- Increase accountability to the electorate.
Government functionaries: police, RDC, security agencies
- No army but only police be involved in the elections
- Appreciate the role of police instead of abusing them
- Police to improve its vigilance and investigation of bribery cases.
- Police should not insult people
- Effective and timely deployment and equipping with new ICT gadgets for the police
Political parties/candidates/agents
- Clarify between facilitation and bribery
- All candidates should resign their political posts to avoid abuse of incumbency
- Parties should prepare and conduct transparent primary elections
- Parties should put in place and enforce a code of conduct in conjunction with the EC
- Parties should declare funding and account to the electorate
- Politicians should tolerate each other’s views
- Parties instead of individuals should be strengthened with structures up to the grassroots.
Electorate
- Strengthen party membership
- Early voter education – at least 8 months before the elections
- Strengthen civic education
- Make voting mandatory
- Create more polling stations
- Display NVR at polling stations at least 8 days before election day
CSOs
- Should monitor post election events e.g. vote recount and election petitions
- FBOs should take on civic and voter education
- Cooperate with the police
- Involve the media in their activities
Media
- Equal access to national media houses
- Media houses should come up with messages that appeal to the moral consciousness of both the voters and the candidates
- Media should work in accordance with an established code of conduct
The meeting was closed by the Deputy RDC Nebbi Mr. Kajil Allan. In his closing remarks he noted that it is nice to have different political ideologues to air out their views in a free and fair atmosphere provided by CEFORD. He added that destiny is by choice not chance and that the interests of Uganda are much bigger than of any individual Ugandan. He called upon the participants to work for development now that the elections are over so that in future the prosperous electorate will not demand for bribes before voting. He cautioned those who had been elected to avoid being discriminatory but to involve everyone including their opponents in the development process. He thanked all stakeholders for their openness and then declared the meeting closed.
Above LC V Chair person Maracha sharing his experience
