Ruhaama County Parliamentary By-election Slated for January 11

The Electoral Commission (E.C) has gazzetted January 11, next year as the polling day for the Ruhama county Parliamentary by-election. This follows the passing on of the former Ruhaama legislator, William Beijukye Zinkuratiire who succumbed to Hepatitis B last month.

According to the roadmap released by E.C, polling will start at 7am and end 4pm on Thursday January 11 at all the 199 polling stations in Ruhaama county in Ntungamo district.

On Tuesday, the E.C Acting Chairperson Hajjat Aisha Lubega Basajjanaku announced that in the lead up to the voting, the Commission will update the voter register between November 27 and December 1.

Currently, a total of 114,938 people are registered in Ruhaama constituency as eligible voters.

During the update exercise of the register, any Uganda citizen who is resident in the constituency but has not been previously registered as a voter will have their details captured and entered into the system.

The updated voter register will subsequently be displayed starting December 11 to 20.

“Voters are urged to turn up in large numbers and check for the correctness of their particulars and confirm that photographs appear against correct particulars,” Hajjat Aisha Basajjanaku said at a news conference.

She urged voters to use the exercise to report cases of dead residents, non citizens, under-aged, non residents whose names might appear on the register so that they are removed.

To that effect, a list for those recommended for deletion will be displayed for a period of 6 days beginning December 28.

Voters will be issued Voter Location Slips to help them conveniently locate the respective polling stations on polling day.

The nomination exercise for candidates seeking to represent Ruhaama in Parliament will start on Monday December 11 and last for three days.

Succesful nominees will then campaign for support with effect from December 15, for a period of three and a half weeks.

The Acting Chairperson appealed to all candidates “to observe law and order during the exercise” and “to conduct their campaign meetings in accordance with the harmonized program”. She said that E.C will not tolerate hate language.

Electoral Commission will accredit representatives from political parties, civil society and other institutions interested in observing electoral activities.

The entire electoral process will cost government a total of Shs 599 million.