Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda in the wake of voter engagement and electoral democracy joined together with other civil societies and made a coalition with a need of engaging the citizenry in the search for electoral reforms in Uganda in order to have free and fair electoral processes and elections. CCEDU through their many engagements with the citizenry in their two foundational campaigns: "Honor your vote" and " Face the citizens" compiled eight key reform areas that make up the Citizens 'Electoral Reform Agenda (CERA handbook).*
While the 2011 elections were deemed free and fair, one can testify that they were far from the picture of free and fair, given the impunity of many leaders, the arbitrary arrests, yellow journalism among many other atrocities that characterized the said free and fair elections. Granted that Uganda carries out free regular elections, CCEDU* through the CERA handbook hoped to table eight important key foundations that push if not transform the electoral democracy environment of Uganda.
From the sidelines, I have continuously engaged and watched the proceedings of CCEDU and to track through the last five years, CCEDU has pushed for the reforms through a number of endeavors in the need for their realization before the 2016 general elections, among those were:
Parliamentary meetings held in parliament and committee meetings where they tabled the CERA reforms in order to have them put on the flow of parliament. Also key note parliamentarians were employed to front certain CERA reforms individually before the 10th parliament.
CCEDU also distributed its own National ID observers to help monitor the National ID process that will then inform the National voter registry; to follow up on that exercise, CCEDU launched the "votability" campaign that helped to push the citizenry to check the voter registry to ascertain their details and polling station. Through the votability campaign, voter awareness and the role the citizenry have to play to ensure their votability or rather their ability to vote in the coming general elections. In that regard, CCEDU managed to make the Electoral Commission to push forward their deadlines in order to give the citizens/voters ample time to cross check their names and polling stations in preparation of the coming 2016 general elections.
Recently, the "Topowa" campaign was launched in line with the coming general election. Its emphasis being on voter awareness to remind the citizenry that their vote counts at all costs and them voting was and will not be a waste of time. So indeed, "Topowa" as the vernacular word denotes is in a way a campaign to that reminds the people not to give up their voting rights and as well not to give up their power to choose their next leaders.
CCEDU today is part and parcel of a monitoring and observation organization, that bring together 15 Civil Society organizations under the umbrella name; Citizens' Election Observation Network (CEON-Uganda) gearing up and getting ready to monitor the pre-election, election and post-election processes in Uganda ahead of the 2016 general elections.
Today, CCEDU stands at a marked line, in reawakening the role of the citizens in deciding who their leaders will be. In the need to understand such a cause, one needs to understand the CERA and assess its viability and its success towards delivery us beyond 2011 in our search for Electoral integrity and democracy. Join me as we, unveil the rest of this rewarding and effortful work.
*CCEDU: Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda was launched on 19th August,2009, as a non-partisan, non profit broad civil society coalition. It brings together over 600 like-minded civil society organizations to advocate for comprehensive electoral democracy in Uganda.
*CERA: The Citizens' Electoral Reform Agenda Handbook is a product of the tireless works of a technical team of experts who carefully studied the recommendations and proposals made by various election observe groups and individuals in the aftermath of the 2011 general elections.
While the 2011 elections were deemed free and fair, one can testify that they were far from the picture of free and fair, given the impunity of many leaders, the arbitrary arrests, yellow journalism among many other atrocities that characterized the said free and fair elections. Granted that Uganda carries out free regular elections, CCEDU* through the CERA handbook hoped to table eight important key foundations that push if not transform the electoral democracy environment of Uganda.
From the sidelines, I have continuously engaged and watched the proceedings of CCEDU and to track through the last five years, CCEDU has pushed for the reforms through a number of endeavors in the need for their realization before the 2016 general elections, among those were:
Parliamentary meetings held in parliament and committee meetings where they tabled the CERA reforms in order to have them put on the flow of parliament. Also key note parliamentarians were employed to front certain CERA reforms individually before the 10th parliament.
CCEDU also distributed its own National ID observers to help monitor the National ID process that will then inform the National voter registry; to follow up on that exercise, CCEDU launched the "votability" campaign that helped to push the citizenry to check the voter registry to ascertain their details and polling station. Through the votability campaign, voter awareness and the role the citizenry have to play to ensure their votability or rather their ability to vote in the coming general elections. In that regard, CCEDU managed to make the Electoral Commission to push forward their deadlines in order to give the citizens/voters ample time to cross check their names and polling stations in preparation of the coming 2016 general elections.
Recently, the "Topowa" campaign was launched in line with the coming general election. Its emphasis being on voter awareness to remind the citizenry that their vote counts at all costs and them voting was and will not be a waste of time. So indeed, "Topowa" as the vernacular word denotes is in a way a campaign to that reminds the people not to give up their voting rights and as well not to give up their power to choose their next leaders.
CCEDU today is part and parcel of a monitoring and observation organization, that bring together 15 Civil Society organizations under the umbrella name; Citizens' Election Observation Network (CEON-Uganda) gearing up and getting ready to monitor the pre-election, election and post-election processes in Uganda ahead of the 2016 general elections.
Today, CCEDU stands at a marked line, in reawakening the role of the citizens in deciding who their leaders will be. In the need to understand such a cause, one needs to understand the CERA and assess its viability and its success towards delivery us beyond 2011 in our search for Electoral integrity and democracy. Join me as we, unveil the rest of this rewarding and effortful work.
*CCEDU: Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda was launched on 19th August,2009, as a non-partisan, non profit broad civil society coalition. It brings together over 600 like-minded civil society organizations to advocate for comprehensive electoral democracy in Uganda.
*CERA: The Citizens' Electoral Reform Agenda Handbook is a product of the tireless works of a technical team of experts who carefully studied the recommendations and proposals made by various election observe groups and individuals in the aftermath of the 2011 general elections.
