Govt moots compulsory electronic voting in 2026

The  Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mr Norbert Mao, has said the government is pushing for compulsory electronic voting in the 2026 General Elections.

Addressing the media in Kampala on Tuesday, Mr Mao said the planned electoral reform seeks to ensure free and fair elections.

“I took proposals to the Cabinet to make electronic voting compulsory. It is a very radical idea in a democratic country,” Mr Mao, who is also the president general of Democratic Party, said. 

He said President Museveni supports the idea, and asked Ugandans to embrace the proposal because it will deal with vote stuffing.

“Electronic voting means voters will use finger prints but also other biometrics methods which include eyelids and face technology so that when one arrives at the polling station, the machine is sure of that person,” he said. 

Mr Mao added that individuals will go with their voter slips which have bar codes and put the code on the machine to confirm. He said with electronic voting, nobody can use someone else’s voter locator slip.

“Vote stuffing is the major problem in elections and by making electronic voting compulsory it will no longer be possible to do vote stuffing and creating fake polling stations,” Mr Mao said 

He added that it will be possible to audit election results because many parties have been calling an audit for elections and now it will be easier the machine will store whoever has reported for voting.

“We are proposing the electronic voting to come with offences, if you declare more votes than the ballot papers issued to you  it is an offence for which you can go to prison if you’re  a presiding officer,” he said 

The Electoral Commission Spokesperson, Mr Paul Bukenya, said: “When we launched the roadmap we invited stakeholders to propose areas for reforms which can promote participation and transparency and electronic voting was one of the issues we spotted which needed serious attention.”

He added that the proposal is timely and welcome because this is the stage in the roadmap where reforms need to be presented , and discussed and. Where possible, enact the necessary laws.

“It is in accordance with what we asked the stakeholders to do by raising areas that need reforms, enactment, and implementation,” he told this publication yesterday.

At the same press conference, Mr Mao urged all political parties to embrace a three-phase transition as they debate the issue of political change in Uganda.

“The first phase is about building consensus between now and 2026, having a government where all political parties are united and   building a consultative mechanism everywhere,” he said.

Mr Mao added: “The new Uganda will come after the next term of government. Currently, you can talk about changing the government but you can do it in a manner that cannot destroy the country, that’s why we need a united front.”

About e-voting

According to Britannica, electronic voting (e-voting) is a form of computer-mediated voting in which voters make their selections with the aid of a computer. The voter usually chooses with the aid of a touch-screen display, although audio interfaces can be made available for voters with visual disabilities. 

There are four basic steps involved in e-voting, which are ballot composition, in which voters make choices; ballot casting, in which voters submit their ballots; ballot recording, in which a system records the submitted ballots; and tabulation, in which votes are counted.  Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India,Italy, Namibia, the Netherlands , Norway, the United Kingdom,  Pakistan and  the Philippines, among others,  have embraced e-voting  in their polls.