By Marvin Twiinawe and Charlotte Nalule
The Guild Electoral Commission of Uganda Christian University (UCU) has announced the Guild election road map.
Speaking at the launch in the E-learning center on Wednesday ,the Electoral Commission (EC) chairperson, Bob Tuhimbisibwe, gave an assurance that the election would be free and fair. “…..Trust me, the election will be free and fair.”
He stated that the plan will kick off with a five-day civic education program from October 12th to October 18th, 2022. Civic education entails educating students and informing them that they must update their alpha credentials so that they do not share their credentials with another student.
The finance secretary, Joseph Bonny Ssekiziyivu, stated that Guild presidential candidates will be required to pay an application fee. “It’s by practice that applications have an application fee that is attached to them.” Therefore, going back to our laws, under article 78, subsection 2 e, it clearly states the functions of the finance secretary is to receive all money to the EC,” he said.
Presidential aspirants will pay Uganda Shs 103,000 and Members of Parliament (Mps) aspirants will pay Uganda Shs 52000 as application fees respectively. He also added that the deadline for applications will be Friday, October 21,2022.
The Dean of Students Affairs, who also doubles as the EC returning officer, Bridget Mugume Mugasira, said that voting will be done online because the university was declared an eChagua.
She added that students who are off-semester will also be catered for. “We are going to have a mock voting day. That will specifically help my students that are off. You will do it and try to vote. If it fails , we will address it such that by voting day, we will be all good to vote.”
Mugasira also urged students to desist from sharing online credentials with others to avoid having their votes altered by others.
“We are going to have a week where we are going to encourage everybody to change their passwords because we do not want you to give your voting rights to another person,” she emphasised.
She also empathised that UCU isn’t a partisan university, so as EC ,they don’t expect any student to front any political party.
“We are a non-partisan institution, so we don’t expect people to front political parties. UCU We don’t have those parties that actually passed that resolution. We are non-partisan. Mugasira said.
She also added that students should be careful with their lives during the electoral process. “Am also requesting you students to be careful with your lives. At the end of the day, it’s your life we need. When this politics is done, we will need scores , we will want you whole.” She said this, citing a UCU student, Betungura Bewate, who passed on in the Makerere University polls earlier in July this year.
