By Ben Musanje
17th March 2021
A new report released this morning by Afro Barometer has shown a reduction of violence and political intimidation fear among Ugandans in 2021 elections compared to the past election exercises since 2008.
The survey on this year’s election campaigns, voting and post-election environment carried out between December 22, 2020 and January 7, 2021 from 300 enumeration areas across 110 districts in the country indicates that only 70 percent of Ugandans interviewed indicated at least a little fear in the recently concluded elections.
The report further indicates that caution about political speech has been increasing for the past two decades from 47% in 2002 to 69% in 2019 yet it appears to spike during election years although the increase has been continuous since the 2016 general elections.
Kampala has been rated the highest 82% fears of political speeches followed by the Central region with 72% as well as urban areas with 76% and 67% for rural areas.
Francis Kibirige, the Afro Barometer National Coordinator says that majority of Ugandans feel free to say what they want or join any political organization and vote without being pressured yet seven in 10 citizens say people have to be careful about what they say concerning politics.
Responding to the survey report after its launch in Kampala, Charity Ahimbisibwe the Coordinator of the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) says that there is a need for the change in transfer of election results from physical to digital form to control fears among Ugandans.
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