What if there were no elections in 2016: what happens next? - BUNYORO MOCK PARLIAMENT

The Bunyoro mock parliament was held at Ikoba boy’s primary school, Bwijanga Sub County on 22^nd January 2015. This session reached a total number of 100 people and among whom 44 were female and 56 were male. The purpose of mock parliaments aimed at building the capacity of young women, youth and People With Disabilities, PSA’s to effectively engage in legislative debates and give platform for the community to interrogate public accountability and service delivery issues.

As 2016 draws close, Forum for Women in Democracy found it imperative to discuss and share views on what people think will happen next if elections are not held in 2016. Basing on the fact that before elections are held the country must have Electoral Laws that are to govern the process like the Electoral Act, Parliamentary Act, and presidential act that are not in place and yet time is too short since these laws are meant to be formulated by parliament to debate and pass them. Beside this there are no clear voter register, what is in place is the national ID registration its not clear on how it’s to be used, voter education has not yet started, when does it start.

Tumukugize from the opposition side started by orienting the members through the motion what if there were no elections in 2016 what happens next?  Nakato Hadija seconded him and Bitwabusa Yesa who are both from the ruling party asked the members what would happen next

Tumukugize from the opposition side implored the speaker to change from the parliament into the committee so that the people in the gallery can participate which was accepted and it was seconded by Kasiija Mugisa and anent muganyizi

Peter Amanya from the opposing side said the if there were no elections   in 2016 violation of human rights high rate of corruption in the country and some of the youth have the dreams of becoming leaders and if elections don’t take place most of these youth their dreams won’t come to pass and there will be a lot of killings in the country.

Kisembo Erasmus from the opposition side said that if there are no elections the democracy of the people will be spoilt and on that point he said that if elections are not conducted a lot of money will be wasted on buying more tear gas and more guns and ammunitions to fight the people who will be demonstrating in the country after those happening this will lead into political instability like what is happening in DRC where by the president wanted to remove the term limits.

Paul from the opposition side said that in most cases if leaders start leaving some activities of the government the end result is war like what happened in Libya.

Bitwabusa yesa from the ruling side started by correcting the previous speakers that there will be no war and said that the people of Uganda should be contented that under what costs the elections will be conducted successfully and all the materials which are needed are already in place to conduct the 2016 elections

Alice from the opposition side said that, I want to correct the current speaker that the government has very little money to conduct elections for example the documents which were used in the population census for 2014 census where for 2011 that is why they had to cancel the data which they had collected and conduct it again and right now the voters register are not yet printed and the time left is too minimal.

Danes from the opposition side said that if elections are not conducted the following will happen rampant demonstrations in the country, violation of human rights and Massacre of people in the country like what happened in Libya due to the president not caring out elections

Tibezinda Moses from the ruling side, said that, the government shall make sure that the security of the country is at peace and whether the elections are conducted or not the country will be at peace and it will be the first of its kind in the country since president kaguta came to power and people will continue conducting their business normally

District male councilor from the ruling party assured the people that currently the government is doing updates on the voters register which is a sign of going to have elections in the year 2016 so members be firm that elections are going to be conducted.

The District Police Commander representative giving her views on the issue of if there were no elections what happens next is about your ideology and urged that people should learn to love their country

Gerald from the opposing side and at the same time the secretary in the FDC party in Bwijanga sub county said that if there are no elections,there will be rampant demonstrations, violation of human rights and massacre of people in the country of Uganda though we are being deceived that we are going to have the elections and yet the voters registers are not yet ready so we should expect the a above issues raised to happen if elections are not conducted.

The secretary for FDC in Bwiijanga sub county stressing some points that if elections are not conducted there will be massacre, political instability and corruption

Secretary for production from the ruling party assured the people that the government is going to conduct elections and we shall be using national ID registration cards for voting and because the government injected in a lot of money it cannot get more money to print out more voters registration cards and yet the national ID cards are there.

Julius from the ruling side said that, if elections are not conducted there will be high rate of poverty among the people and Uganda will be ranked first among the poor countries, corruption, theft and massacre of the people in the country among others.

The Electoral supervisor Bwijanga sub county Husain electoral supervisor Bwijanga Sub County strongly confirmed to the people that there will be elections for 2016 although the Electoral Laws are not yet in place, the staff therefore have to work hard because they have been trained and also there are a number of staff that worked during the National Identity card registration. And apparently the Electoral Commission is doing road map and updating the voter registers.

He confirmed to the participants that the places they indicated on the ID registration where they preferred to vote from are the exact places the voters will cast their votes from, he added that After road map, they will then do the Display and then Voter education around March, as well as have the campaigns so everything is according to the plan.

In attendance of the mock parliament was the Municipal Division Electoral Supervisor, who pointed out the ID registration has been put on halt and we are now focusing on elections, but after elections we will resume with registration for the immigrants who are non Ugandans but now live in Uganda and also register the young children 

In Conclusion the council agreed that if there are no elections what happens are the following in the country because of the retrogressive economy, political instability, mismanagement of funds, massacre of the people and dusty roads

The mock parliament recommended that Electoral commission to give dates to the public on how far the process and that Electoral commission should be independent , voter education should start in time so that those voting for the first time know what to do  and that citizens should be provided with their National Identity Cards