CSOS IN WEST NILE CRY FOUL OVER ACCREDITATION BY EC

Members of the West Nile civil society in a group photo after their regional engagement on Wednesday in Arua city.
Photo by Morish Dramadri

By Morish Dramadri

Arua city

Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) undertaking governance in West Nile region have decried the bureaucracy in accreditation to participate in election observation and the misconception against them by the electoral commission and other election stakeholders in the country’s electoral processes.

In Uganda’s last general election, about 300 civil society organizations were recruited as election observer by West Nile civil society Network but only around 46 were accredited by the electoral commission.

Annet Lekuru the executive director of Feminature Uganda, a women led organization working on governance and democracy in the region blamed the negative perception on the civil societies to the failure by people to accept change. “Many people are not comfortable with change, when we start talking about how democracy should function it makes many people uncomfortable so the easiest escape is to say civil societies are partisan yet we are not,” Lekuru noted.

Hoffin Japonga the programs manager at RETE-Uganda, faulted the electoral commission for seeing the civil societies as threats. “Some of us have been misinterpreted, our mandate has not been conceived clearly, electoral commission has also seen us as a threat in the whole process, if we want to have meaningful and productive election where the sovereignty of the people is recognized then take these elections as a peaceful way of making change,” Hoffin lamented.  

Equally Abiko Edna the regional coordinator of West Nile Civil society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) deprecated the intimidation against the civil societies by the other stakeholders. “Recently we show the citizens were trying to match on the issues of corruption but the intimidation was a lot where the duty bearers that should work against corruption are coming in to attack saying that it is some NGOs spearheading the match but now they are the same people that are intimidating us when we also try to encourage the citizens to know their rights, really!” Edna exclaimed.

But Onzia Teopista the Executive Director of CEPAD West Nile and BOD member of WESCINET implores the civil societies not to be afraid of the intimidations. “as CSOs we speak for those who don’t have the voices so if we shy off and don’t speak of the vices that are affecting the democracy of the electoral processes, then we have failed to shape the democracy of the nation, as long as we are speaking the truth with good intension, then we should not be afraid,” Onzia implored.