By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
EC Extends Voter Registration Exercise
The Electoral Commission has announced an extension of voter’s registration and update of registers for seven days.
Addressing journalists on the updates of the exercise at EC offices on Monday, Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, the EC Chairperson said the extension is due to the frequent demands from members of the public and other stakeholders requesting for the extension of the registration deadline to allow many voters time to verify, update their particulars.
“The commission taking into account of its observations in the field and assessment and views from stakeholders among other various reasons, has therefore decided to extend the update exercise for a period of seven days starting tomorrow Tuesday 11th February and ending on Monday 17th February, 2025,” said Byabakama.
The Update of registers and registration of new voters started on January 20th, 2025 and was supposed to close today, Monday 10th February, 2025 at 6pm.
The Chief Elections Commissioner said that the update exercise will be conducted at the designated centres and warned that no further extensions will be made thereafter the set period.
He also disclosed that national voter’s register currently stands 19.925 million voters and the commission expects that these numbers may increase with the extension period.
Additionally, the commission has sent a stern warning to individuals in the registration exercise against “harassing” female muslims during the registration process. The warning according to justice Byabakama follows complaints from the muslim communities that some registrars are forcing female muslims to remove their veils inorder to be captured.
