{UAH} EDITORIAL: Uganda poll fails fairness, credibility test - Editorial

On Thursday voters, many of whom turned up at their polling stations before the 7.00am (0400 GMT) opening time, spent hours in long queues waiting for the voting to start after materials arrived late. 

Some of the delays were simply inexcusable: How do you explain failure to deliver polling materials on time to a station that is 200 metres away from the headquarters of the Electoral Commission? In the end, some of the voters gave up and left. Voters in some 38 polling stations had to return the next day to vote, an inconvenience they had not anticipated.

In some polling stations, thousands of voters' names were not in the voters' register, which locked them out of the exercise. The net effect of the delays and hitches is that thousands of voters were disenfranchised. 

As former Nigerian president and head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission Olusegun Obasanjo observed, delays of three, four, five and even six hours, especially in Kampala, were absolutely inexcusable and did not inspire trust in the system or process.

EDITORIAL: Uganda poll fails fairness, credibility test - Editorial 

Sincerely,

Brian M. Kwesiga