Charity Kalebbo Ahimbisibwe, the Executive Director at Electoral Laws Institute in Uganda
The Executive Director, Electoral Laws Institute in Uganda, Charity Kalebbo Ahimbisibwe, has commended the Electoral Commission (EC) on the ongoing nationwide exercise for identification and mapping of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) on the National Voters Register in preparation for the 2025/2026 General Elections.
The exercise started on November 4, 2024 is expected to end on Wednesday November 13, 2024.
“The National Council for Disability Act 2003 was amended in 2020 to become the Persons with Disabilities Act 2020, now that Act aims to promote rights of persons with disability through partnership, coordination, advocacy, and monitoring for compliance with legal frameworks to do with PWDs and the EC has been particular in following this document,” Ahimbisibwe says in an exclusive interview with Business Focus.
The former National Coordinator r at the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) has years of experience in Elections, Election observation and conducting voter mobilization campaigns.
She however says there are major gaps that need to be addressed. She says the EC must massively create awareness for Ugandans to embrace elections.
According to Ahimbisibwe, in the 2021 elections, over 7.7 million Ugandans did not show up to polls.
She says the EC hasn’t created enough awareness about the ongoing exercise for identification and mapping of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) on the National Voters Register.
“You can’t use WhatsApp alone. Facebook up to now is still closed in Uganda. We should have had PWDs on TikTok telling us about their voter update process and we should have the initial data coming out but it (EC) has been a silent process,” Ahimbisibwe adds.
From 2001, Ahimbisibwe says “the Judges have been very clear that the voter education process has been affecting our election.”
“In 2006, the Judges reechoed the same that we can’t have meaningful elections without voter education. So, there should have been voter education around this process. The National Council for Persons with Disabilities is the one which is supposed to be working with the CSO and EC to ensure that policies and laws concerning PWDs are carried out according to the law, but we hardly saw the Council coming to do anything to do with this exercise.,” Ahimbisibwe says.
She adds: “We need more information going to the different facets of the people that are going to participate in the elections of 2026. Initially, we need to ask the Council to take interest in the data that the EC will put out; let’s do critical analysis of the data in comparison to what UBOS has told us and what the Council and NUDIPU have as standards for the voter register for PWDs. Can we first capture the correct data concerning with PWDs. In line with SDG 10 (inclusivity), voter register for PWDs should and must be handled with utmost responsibility like the national voters register,” Ahimbisibwe said.
