Editorial
Jan 11, 2004
The Electoral Commission is broke and cannot pay its huge court bills totalling nearly Shs 200 million.
As a result, many of its activities are threatened with disruption by court bailiffs who want to recover the compensation awards due to their clients who won election petitions in court.
It is a shame that a public body that is supposed to command respect and uphold a good example has been reduced to this level of desperation and ridicule.
Now literally under siege, the EC is operating on the edge, not knowing whether their equipment out there will be attached the next day or not.
Unfortunately, the EC has brought this upon itself. Why? Many of the major elections the EC has organised, from presidential to parliamentary to local councils, have been conducted with such level of mediocrity and partiality that it is a miracle that only Shs 200 million is outstanding in court bills.
The EC has left well-connected establishment politicians to cheat elections with impunity, sometimes its own officers allegedly lending a hand. In fact many candidates and voters have had to guard as much against cheating opponents as against EC officials.
It has condoned election violence, multiple voting, and a myriad of other electoral malpractice.
The cases of Rukungiri, Kabale, and Mbarara, among other places, stand out like a sore thumb and the blame falls squarely on EC â by omission or commission.
So in future if the EC wantâs to avoid being dragged to court and asked to pay huge fees in damages, it should put its foot down and only declare a candidate a winner if convinced that he/she played fair and won fairly.
But this practice of declaring a candidate winner simply because he is a minister or is favoured by some big politician even though he rode roughshod over his opponents will only bring in more cases and more court awards.
The EC should have the nerves to annul an election before the parties even go to court to save its money and image.
This, unfortunately, is unlikely to happen as soon as the composition of the EC cannot be said to be above partisan politics or political manipulation inspite of pretences to the contrary.
 2003 The Monitor Publications
