Uganda: The Management of Elections

Uganda is scheduled to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in early 2011. The last general elections held in 2006, the first under a multi-party system since 1980, were controversial and the results contested. A Supreme Court judgment on the presidential elections confirmed the existence of significant irregularities, but ultimately declined to declare that the result was invalid. This report considers the current situation in relation to the legislative framework, the context for elections in Uganda and the functioning of the Electoral Commission (EC), with the aim of contributing to the process of ensuring that the 2011 elections are more widely accepted than those of 2006.

The paper provides findings such as:

• Uganda’s legislative framework is mostly in compliance with international and African standards, though there are some significant exceptions in relation to freedom of assembly and association, and the rules for party funding
  
• In practice, there are much more serious concerns, especially about the respect for the rights of opposition parties to organise and the media to report on political developments, the lack of a ‘level playing field’ in access to resources, and the threat of violence during the campaign
  
• The functioning of the EC has been heavily criticised by opposition parties and civil society observers and it is constrained by a lack of resources and a lack of legal powers
  
• Some electoral laws have been adopted or amended only during 2010, making it difficult to ensure that all those who need to be familiar with them, including staff of the EC, can be educated on their content
  
• A Code of Conduct for political parties and a National Consultative Forum (NCF) to resolve issues among stakeholders had been formally adopted in August 2010, but are yet to become functional.

The paper provides recommendations such as:

• Steps should be taken to increase the independence of the Commission by strengthening the process for appointing commissioners and providing them with greater security of tenure
  
• The EC should be empowered to deal with electoral violence by suspending candidates responsible for creating such violence; the codes of conduct for political parties and media should be formulated and publicised in all local languages; and the NCF should be operationalised with full representation of all political parties.