Youth leaders under the Platform for Youth Inclusion in Politics (PYIP) have called upon the government, international community and the general public to condemn all acts of violence ahead of the 2021 general elections.
Addressing a press conference at Farajah African Foundation offices in Kampala on Friday, they uniformly stated that violence erodes voter confidence in the electoral process especially at a time when the country is remaining with few months to the 2021 general elections.
“We highly condemn all acts of violence in the electoral process especially that motivated by security organs like police and the army like the recent unfortunate raid on NUP offices. This kind of violence tends to erode voter confidence which results into low voter turn up during elections,” Emmanuel Wabwire, executive director of Farajah international.
He appealed to heads of security to have clear regulations on the mandate of the military and police and urged them to adopt a dialogue approach to the interest of peaceful elections to seek out more civilized ways of handling the leadership and supporters of political parties other than basing action on the intelligence at hand.
According to Prosper Mubangizi, a policy analyst from the Center for Policy Analysis (CEPA), all forms of violence should be condemned.
“As representatives of the young people in Uganda, we condemn in the strongest terms the continued abuse of human rights. The recent unfortunate events at the NUP offices on Wednesday was unfortunate,” he said.
They also called on the fellow youth in to denounce and desist from election violence by state and non-state actors and instead use their demographic strength to peacefully participate in the next elections for it would make their voice sound.
They have pledged to work with legal aid institutions to support victims of election violence and also pursue a legal approach towards ensuring election justice for all ugandans including using the Human Rights Enforcement Act to conduct prosecution of errant officials involved in violence against Ugandans.
The Platform for Youth Inclusion in Politics (PYIP) comprises of organizations like Farajah Africa Foundation, Action Aid Uganda, Open space Center /YCED, Advance Africa FoundationYouth Coalition for Electoral Democracy, Uganda Youth Network /YCED, ACDEG Youth Chapter Ulead Uganda chapter, The alternative social movement, Inter party Youth Platform(IYOP), Innovation for Democratic Engement and Action (IDEA), Guild President Association of Uganda among others.
The post Youth Leaders Want Government, International Community to Condemn Electoral Violence first appeared on ChimpReports.