Africa-Press – Uganda. The chairperson of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) electoral commission, Tanga Odoi, has cancelled all grassroots elections conducted without the official voters’ register, citing serious irregularities and violations of party procedures.
Speaking on Saturday, Odoi said the party would organise fresh elections in affected areas, especially where commission officials were absent and unauthorised persons conducted the exercise.
“In areas where registers were not used, we are cancelling the elections and are doing another election,” he said, pointing to the Old Taxi Park polling station in Kampala as a specific example.
“The person who reported to us that he conducted the elections is a chairperson of taxi operators. He doesn’t have the mandate to conduct the elections,” he added.
Odoi noted that commission staff at the Old Taxi Park fled due to violence, abandoning the process.
“The regulations were clear—you must use the register, and the elections must be conducted by the commission officers,” he emphasised, insisting that elections must comply with laid down rules to maintain legitimacy.
His remarks come in the wake of grassroots elections held across the country, some of which were characterised by disorganisation and reports of members being denied the chance to vote due to missing or inaccessible registers.
In several cases, locals reportedly took matters into their own hands, conducting unofficial elections without guidance from the NRM electoral body.
The cancellations are expected to spark further debate within the party, as concerns mount over the credibility of its internal election processes.
Some NRM members have already voiced dissatisfaction over what they view as flawed and unfair administration, with questions now looming over how widespread the irregularities were.
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