EC to conduct survey for voters turn up decline

By Olivia Nabaggala

8^th March 2021

The Electoral Commission (EC) says it’s conducting a study to understand why voters don’t turn up to vote.

Cyprian Ogwang, the head of Research and Planning Department at EC says this survey will be part of the evaluation of the entire election process they conducted in 2021.

He says the survey began after the 2021 election and preliminary findings could be released next month and EC will reach out to several stakeholders including civil societies that conduct voter education.

Charity Ahimbisibwe, Executive Director Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy Uganda (CCEDU) says the fact that low voter turnout in urban areas has been the trend for the last two decades, it deserves critical interventions.

Urban districts have always registered a low voter turnout. For instance, in the January 2021 presidential election, Kampala had a 43 percent voter turnout yet in 2016, it polled 51.48 percent, 41.52 per cent in 2011, 58.7per cent in 2006.

It is only in 2001 when Kampala registered a voter turnout of 71 percent, just above the national average of 69 percent.

And in the January 14th presidential election, Gulu city had the lowest voter turnout with 33 percent, followed by Kampala, Amuru then Arua city, and Jinja city with 45 percent respectively. The national average voter turnout was 59 percent.