Elections are not a ritual, say analysts
By Catherine Ajuna Ayebare
Analysts have said elections in Uganda are not a mere ritual as claimed by many.
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"The quality of elections in Uganda has been the center of discussion for a long time and every time we get out of the elections, the GDP deepens," said Henry Muguzi, the Executive Director at Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM) while appearing on NBS Television's Morning Breeze .
Muguzi alongside Capt.Francis Babu shared views on Uganda's election system and where they think the country is headed in terms of democratic levels.
"We expect an election that is going to be heavily monetized, with many independents and more youth," Muguzi said.
Capt Francis Babu said "The electoral commission can only organize a credible election after the census.We need to know the number of people."
Uganda last conducted a census in 2014 with the population amounting to 34 million and the rest of the numbers are generated by mere internet calculations which means there is uncertainty about the exact number and therefore cases of vote rigging cannot fail to surface in the upcoming elections unless we are clear with the numbers.
"We organize elections in a dishonest society and the EC organizing an election in such a society is hard," Muguzi says.
However, Babu thinks it goes two ways which makes it everyone's responsibility to be just and fair.
"The rigging of elections is on both sides, can we change and stop cheating?" he says.
