The Electoral Commission (EC) has ordered fresh Local Council I (LC1) elections in 1,135 villages after voting failed to take place or could not be completed during the nationwide polls held on July 28.
EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama said the elections were largely peaceful and successful, with voting completed in 70,079 of the country’s 71,214 villages, representing a 98.4 percent success rate.
“The process was generally peaceful, orderly, transparent and well attended by eligible village residents,” Byabakama told journalists at the EC headquarters on Wednesday.
He said polling failed in 1,135 villages, or 1.6 percent of the total, due to disruptions, violence, destruction of polling materials, tied results, disputes over village registers and the death of nominated candidates, among other factors.
“There were, however, a limited number of villages where polling could not take place or be completed due to unforeseen circumstances such as disruptions and interference by some individuals and groups, chaos and violence, destruction of polling materials, tied results, disputes about the voters’ registers, or death of nominated candidates,” he observed.
Byabakama said some affected villages repeated voting on Wednesday where circumstances allowed, while the remaining polls will be conducted on Saturday, August 1.
He said villages where voters’ registers were destroyed, vandalised or stolen will conduct fresh registration of eligible residents on Thursday, July 30, followed by display of the register on Friday, July 31, before voting on Saturday.
In villages where polling was disrupted by violence or chaos but the register remains intact, voting will also be held on Saturday.
For villages where nominated candidates died before polling, fresh nominations will be conducted on Thursday, followed by campaigns on Friday and voting on Saturday.
“Nominations shall only be conducted to fill the vacancy created by the deceased candidate,” Byabakama said.
He clarified that candidates who had already been duly nominated would not be required to undergo the nomination process again.
The nationwide LC1 elections attracted candidates from political parties and independents.
Byabakama said some disruptions occurred after people whose names did not appear on the Village Residents’ Register attempted to vote using only national identity cards.
“In accordance with the applicable electoral laws, only persons whose names appeared in the Village Residents’ Register were eligible to vote. As a result, those who were turned away disrupted the electoral process, leading to the calling off of elections in some villages,” he said.
He appealed to residents in the affected villages to remain peaceful during the repeat polls and warned individuals planning to disrupt the exercise.
“We would like to send out a strong warning to all those characters who may be planning to cause violence and chaos to disrupt these repeat and residual elections that they stand warned and the long arm of the law will be firmly applied against them,” Byabakama said.
He said the Commission remains committed to concluding the remaining electoral activities in accordance with the Constitution and electoral laws.