1 million ghosts on voter register By Badru D. Mulumba
The Monitor (Kampala)
March 29, 2005
KAMPALA - At the bare minimum, about a million ghost voters were on the national voters' roll during the last presidential and parliamentary elections.
A year and a half after the last elections, Uganda had only 10.7 million people of voting age on September 12/13, 2002 when the national census was conducted.
But 11.6 million people had been registered to vote during the 2001 elections. Even if everybody had registered to vote, which is practically impossible, the total number would still have been less than 11 million.
The Monitor arrived at this figure by adding up the census numbers from ages 18 and above the voting population.
But the full extent of the bloated register could be a lot worse.
Last week, the acting Electoral Commission chairman, Mr Joseph Biribonwa, said as he announced the extension of the voters' register update to April 7 that the EC had registered only 8.3 million voters in the count down to next year's elections.
This is 3.3 million less than registered voters almost five years ago when the population of the country was much less at just over 21 million people.
Significantly, the EC has arrived at the 8.3 million people after introducing the photographic voters' register, which technically makes it nearly impossible for any one to vote twice.
Under the photographic voters' register, voters' faces are identified.
But electoral officials are hesitant to refer to the 2001 descrepancies as a case of ghost voters.
Yesterday, EC Secretary, Sam Rwakoojo told The Monitor that there was a possibility that the interest in registering was yet to pick up.
Said Rwakoojo: "That is what we got: eight million. What we do not know is whether the eight million is because people are less interested in registering, whether it is because of the elimination of double registration. Or whatever. So, we didn't know what the problem was. B ut now, that the referendum is on, the interest in registering will pick up. We should expect a lot more."
He, however, said there is usually a higher voter turn out during the presidential elections. The second highest voter interest is in parliamentary elections.
The final census report puts to rest arguments and counter arguments about whether the voters' register was bloated in 2001. The remaining argument should be: By how many voters was the register bloated?
Allegations of a bloated voters' register during the last two presidential and parliamentary polls have been around since 2001. But in the past, the critics were relying purely on the fact that half Uganda's population was estimated at below 15 years.
This therefore, is the first time, a government survey backs up those claims with actual numbers.
The census figures show that if everybody above 18 registered to vote on September 12/13 2002, there would have been 10,733,812 voters.
The (20-2 4) age group, born during the Uganda People's Congress and Tito Okello Lutwa Administrations in the first half of the 1980s, was the single largest voting block, providing one-and-half as many potential voters as the second largest voting age group (25-29).
Twenty out of every 100 eligible voters were aged between 20 and 24 (2,175,580) compared to 17 out of every 100 eligible voters aged between 25 and 29 (1,778,541 people).
The age group, 30-34 years, born during Amin's last years in power, was next in voting power, with 14 out of every 100 eligible voters belonging there.
Next year's presidential and parliamentary elections provide the first opportunity for the children who have known only Mr Yoweri Museveni as their president to vote. Ten out of every 100 eligible voters belong to the age group 18-19.
Since the census was done on the night of September 12/13, the figures will have changed slightly at the time of the next presidential elections. But it nevertheless gives a trend.
The census, also confirms women as having the largest number of eligible voters.
If voting was strictly on the basis of gender lines, the president would be female because eligible female voters (5,072,226) outnumber eligible male voters (5,671,595) by over half a million (599,369 persons).
But the gap between male and female voters falls dramatically within the age group 30 - 34, with women outnumbering men by only 3,797 eligible voters.
If the voting was along the rural-urban divide, the rural president would get as many as a six times the votes of the urban candidate.
According to our calculations, 85 out of every 100 eligible voters are rural.
"The majority of the population lives in rural areas," says the census report. According to the EC, some 353 posts - president, MPs, Local Council 5 chairpersons - will be competed for at about 20,000 polling stations.===In the 2001 elections I sent The Monitor about this topic. They chickened out of reporting it, thereby forcing me to opt for publishing it on the web. Perhaps they are less timid/corrup theses days (a few of them were/are romoured to be in Museveni's pocket back then). Anyhow, I'll put it up again for you.
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