Local leaders in western Uganda are challenging the use of queues in the scheduled Local Council elections.
The leaders led by the LC 3 chairperson of Bukiro Sub County in Mbarara David Kitengye have strongly opposed this method and asked government to provide an alternative for the oncoming polls.
Kitengye says they were upset hearing that LC 1 elections will be conducted using queues unlike other elections which are secret ballot.
The Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, who was recently tasked by parliament explain the amendments in the law that will guide the LC polls which are slated for January 2017, revealed that government will be devoting only 9 billion shillings for the exercise.
The electoral commission has asked for 37billion, which government said was not affordable.
As such, the LC 1 polls which were last conducted during the 2001 general elections will still be conducted through voters lining up.
But local leaders and residents in Mbarara are strongly opposed to this system which they say stirs divisionism and may breed domestic violence.
One of the locals in Kashari Komwema Deziderio says since the voting is not secret, the eventual elected leaders may choose to punish those that didn’t vote for them.
The RDC Mbarara Capt. Martha Asiimwe however, told the residents during a meeting that the queuing up system will be a more transparent method of voting.
“It will also help us fight bribery,” she remarked. “You cannot have eaten a candidate’s money and he sees you lining up behind his opponent.”
She added that while this might be seen as a backward method of voting, people must also bear in mind that Uganda is still a poor country.