Justice Simon Byabakama Mugenyi, Chairperson, Electoral Commission
The Electoral Commission has reiterated that the use of the Biometric Voter Verification Kit (BVVK) during polling is now mandatory.
“This measure is critical in safeguarding the integrity of the vote by ensuring that only duly registered voters participate in the elections. As you may already be aware, the Minister responsible for Justice and Constitutional Affairs has signed a statutory Instrument that further buttresses existing laws to make BVVK use mandatory,” said Justice Byabakama Mugenyi Simon, Chairperson, Electoral Commission in a statement dated December31, 2025.
Guidance on Presenting Complaints
He added that the Commission has also noted a growing practice of sharing particulars of individuals who are deemed to be wrongly included on the National Voters Register.
“The Commission wishes to guide that any complaint about the content of the Register should be directly addressed to the Commission through its established offices to avoid causing alarm by sharing unfounded and unverified information, which constitutes misinformation, disinformation and fake news. Further in compliance with data protection and privacy laws, we urge any concerned person not to publish the photographs or personal details of any ‘questionable’ voters,” he said, adding: “We advise all stakeholders to refrain from sharing individual’s personal voter information on social media without his/her consent, as this violates privacy laws.”
Delivery of Ballot Papers and Packing of Election Materials
Byabakama said EC started receiving consignments of Ballot Papers and Declaration of Results (DR) Forms for the 2025/2026 General Elections from the contracted security printers abroad to ensure readiness for polling.
To-date, he said, the following categories of ballot papers have been received: Presidential Elections; Direct-elected Member of Parliament, and District Woman Representative to Parliament.
“The receipt of the above election materials was witnessed by representatives of Presidential Candidates and Political Parties, as well as members of the Media, and accredited election observers,” he said, adding: “Further, the Commission has completed the packing of generic materials and commenced on the non-generic materials. The generic materials include the following items: pens, strings, stamp pads, polythene sheet, rubber bands, ink pad, elections forms, report forms, oaths, official report book, aprons, tamper-proof evident envelopes, indelible mark pens, etc. The dispatch of transparent ballot boxes, cordoning tapes, basins and solar lamps has already commenced to all the Districts/Cities.”
He added that EC has commenced packing of the National Voters Register and ballot papers for each respective polling station, before dispatch for polling day for Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
