By Hussein Kiganda
Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has punched holes in the capacity of the Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) electoral commission to organise successful online elections.
“If the Ugandan government itself has not yet reached the level of organising digital polls, what about UMA?” he wondered before adding: “We have so many artistes out there who do not know how to use a smartphone, now you are telling them to vote online, how will they do it? Our knowledge about technology is still too low for us to organise elections online.”
In an interview on May 31, the law practitioner also noted that there could be ghost voters on the UMA system who are hard to identify.
He asked: “How sure are you that there are no ghost voters on the system?”
Lukwago advised the commission to take more time to organise physical elections so that all candidates can be satisfied.
The elections are slated for June 6, having been moved from May 23.
“To organise transparent polls, I think the commission should add more time so that they prepare themselves and do something genuine,” Lukwago advised.
He encouraged the incoming UMA leadership to consult the law fraternity in order to organise the association’s constitution and set things straight for the future.
“The next UMA leadership has so much work to do. They have to unite and set up laws that govern the association and the industry for its betterment. It should be independent of the Government and whenever they need help in regards to the law, we shall always guide them,” Lukwago promised.
Lukwago is part of musician King Saha’s legal team, which has since challenged UMA’s decision to organise online polls. King Saha is contesting against Cindy Sanyu and Lord Bitemu for the UMA presidency.
