The independence of the Electoral Commission (EC) has been questioned so many times that further questions barely grab people’s attention. Those who question its independence are doing so for very valid reasons. We all know – at least those of us who follow politics – that Mr Museveni appoints the chairperson and the commissioners who organise presidential elections in which (would you believe it) he stands. Uganda has held six such elections, and they have all been won by the same person: Mr Museveni.
True, the Constitution gives Mr Museveni the responsibility to appoint the EC. But allowing the President to perform this function makes the legitimacy of the entire exercise questionable. It is hard to understand how the Constituent Assembly, which debated the draft Constitution, failed to realise that it was creating a problem that stands in the way of democratic governance. Elections, like football matches, are contests. If you appoint a commission to oversee an election in which you are a candidate, you are acting remarkably like a football team that chooses its own referee.
Now, if you are certain that you are going to lose elections or football matches all the time, nobody is going to complain. But if you emerge the winner all the time, people are going to complain. That is the problem we are dealing with in Uganda. You can sum it up like this: The striker chooses the referee and wonders why we doubt the score. There is no doubt at all that the EC owes allegiance to Mr Museveni. If the EC were truly independent, we would all know it is only answerable to the electorate and that it performs its duties without fear and favour, without intimidation.
But in August 2018, Mr Museveni gave us more reasons to cast doubts on the EC’s ability to act independently. Speaking at an event in Kampala, which took place after the NRM had suffered a series of defeats in by-elections, Mr Museveni blasted the Commission, saying: ‘Why should we suffer with corrupt election officials when the NRM has so much manpower? They should be out.’ Several news outlets that quoted Mr Museveni actually used stronger words: ‘The Electoral Commission is full of rotten people. I am going to get rid of them.’ I did not start with these words because, when I reviewed the NTV news report the news outlets cited, I did not find them.
The takeaway from the President’s comments is that he intimidates the EC. If he had not appointed it, he would not threaten to throw its commissioners out. And there is something even more telling, especially for people who read between the lines: Why would the President say ‘NRM has so much manpower’? The EC is not the secretariat of the NRM. It needs qualified people to lead it, not pro-NRM people appointed by the President. The EC organises elections for Uganda, not for the NRM. What is the relevance of the NRM manpower to the way it works?
It is really hard for the EC to lay any claim to independence. Last Sunday, a Kampala newspaper quoted it as saying it had registered 3.5 million new voters. The paper reported that it had spoken to several political parties that had written to the EC requesting the national voters’ register, but that they had got no response.
People who want to view the national voters’ register have to pay, according to the EC’s spokesperson, Julius Mucunguzi, who says the money is meant to meet production costs.
But some countries where elections are managed well make voter rolls publicly accessible. In 2022, Nepal’s electoral commission published its national voters’ register on its website. The EC is going to come under a lot of criticism in the run-up to the election, but the real problem is how it is appointed.