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Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A crowd of close to 500 people has been blocked from accessing Mukono nomination centre. According to Mukono District Registrar Mark Muganzi Mayanja, the move is intended to decongest the centre and abide by the Ministry of Health guidelines for controlling the spread of coronavirus disease.
Ahead of the official closure of nominations on October 1, scores of aspirants for local council positions flocked the centre today, in a rush to beat the deadline. Many of them were accompanied by hundreds of supporters, crowding the nomination centre, in contravention of the COVID-19 guidelines issued by both the Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Health.
Muganzi says that they are only allowing 70 people including aspirants and their seconders to enter the gate at a time. The priority is given to those whose nomination process was not completed last evening and those who arrived at the centre before 10 a.m.
John Kasozi, one of those locked out says the district needed to establish more nomination centres at the sub-county headquarters to reduce congestion and speed up the process.
The Electoral Commission had established one more nomination centre in Mukono, to cater for aspirants in the area of Nakifuma. But both centres have been receiving not less than 300 aspirants and their seconders, every day. The overwhelming numbers forced the nominating team to extend their working hours to 10 p.m.
Daniel Mukooza, who is aspiring for the position of a councillor in Mpatta sub-county says that he had to spend the night within Mukono town for an early bird slot at the nominating centre. It cost him about 500, 000 Shillings, to pay for lodging, transport and feed his seconders.
Reverend Peter Bakaluba Mukasa, who was nominated to contest for the district leadership says that the centres need more officers and equipment to speed up the verification process of requirements which includes receipts, academic papers and national identification numbers of seconders. Each centre has two computers for the verification exercise.
He appeals to the electoral commission consider an extension days to give an opportunity to people intending to run for different positions. At the end of last week, 593 people had been nominated to contest on various local government positions.
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