Agency
With just seven days to January 15 general elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) has begun the nationwide dispatch of voting materials, a move it says underscores its readiness to deliver timely and credible polls despite lingering public skepticism rooted in past elections.
On Thursday, the EC dispatched the first batch of generic voting materials to 51 out of 146 districts, marking the opening phase of a rolling logistical operation that will continue up to January 10.
The materials include ballot boxes, declaration forms, indelible ink, and other non-candidate-specific supplies required at polling stations.
At the flag-off ceremony at their Ntinda warehouse in Kampala, EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama Mugenyi dismissed suggestions that the phased dispatch was unusual or suspicious, drawing parallels with previous elections.
Uganda will go to the polls to elect a president, Members of Parliament, and local government leaders, in an election cycle widely viewed as a critical test of the country’s democratic institutions.
The 2026 elections will be the first nationwide deployment of the Biometric Voter Verification Kits (BVVK), a technology-driven system intended to curb voter impersonation, multiple voting, and ballot stuffing, problems that have long haunted Uganda’s electoral process.
The system verifies voters using fingerprints, facial recognition, or national ID barcodes, replacing sole reliance on paper registers.
