With the various elections held in 2026 and leading up to it, including the presidential and parliamentary as well as local government polls, there has been chaos, confusion, and public outcry over vote rigging. In many instances, polling officials are cited as part of the cartel robbing voters and candidates on polling day. Some of these instances have been reported in the media, and others recorded on camera. The Electoral Commission (EC) that superintended over these polls must, without further delay, swing into action to investigate, arrest, and prosecute the officials involved in the irregularities.
Voter turnout has declined with every successive election, with voters accusing the powers that be of altering election results, stuffing ballot boxes and in one instance at least, a returning officer in Mukono declaring two winners. As things stand in 2026, the reputation of what is supposed to be the independent EC is in tatters. We have seen various players appear to usurp the Commission’s powers, flout electoral laws, and issue countermands to the electoral law without consequences.
The Commission needs to pick itself up and do an audit once this exercise is done. If wrongdoers are allowed to walk off scot-free, it will only embolden the vote thieves and ballot box stuffing crews. Returning officers should know that they hold a sacred office and must be provided security equivalent to the serious mandate they hold. As it happens, with the Uganda Examinations Board, exam cheating is punished with exam centre cancellation and withholding of results; we should see the same measure of seriousness applied to vote rigging.
The cost of rigging should be so high that it discourages anyone from even considering it. Failure to act on the widespread dishonest practices makes the Commission complicit in the rigging at all levels. Worse, it discredits the voting exercise so badly that no leader who emerges from this flawed exercise will be trusted as the true people’s choice. It is incumbent on the EC to clean its house and not just to pay lip service to doing the right thing.
Those who came to office via election irregularities and those who aided them in these criminal acts must face the full force of the law. The vote manipulation that is being reported is possible in large part with the cooperation of the Commission personnel.