NRM LEADERSHIP IN LANGO SUB-REGION PRAISES DIGITIZATION OF VOTER REGISTER

By Ambrose Okai

LIRA CITY

Some National Resistance Movement party leadership in Lango sub region have praised the ongoing digitization of the party voter register saying it would safeguard its electoral process and strengthen its promise to transparency, unity, and accountability.

Recently, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) embarked on a 21-day exercise to update and digitize its voter register in preparation for its upcoming internal elections. The exercise is being done into eighteen sub zones in Uganda.

Patrick Ogwang Obura, the official from NRM secretariat who is heading the team that is conducting this exercise for Lango sub zone said this exercise is aim at getting a clean database of the party members.

‘’What is happening is we are getting the data from the yellow book and capturing them into the computer database, which has been designed by the NRM ruling party to ensure that we have a clean and authentic database of all the members in Uganda. The NRM party has decided to go digital to ensure that we have our information very intact, very easy to access and update especially, so that in preparation of the upcoming exercise of general election, we have a clean database that can help us in organizing first of all the party elections and then also the general elections,’’ Ogwang said.

Ogwang also said the updated register will provide the party with accurate data on its membership, enabling it to identify its strongholds and areas requiring more mobilization.

‘’This will not only improve the internal elections but also strengthen the party’s overall electoral strategy ahead of the 2026 general elections,’’ Ogwang adds.

Jaspher Onena, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party chairman for Oyam district is hopeful that this digital transformation will set the stage for more transparent, efficient, and credible internal NRM primary elections.

He said some time back everyone was allowed to vote in the primaries, including non-members and opposition supporters that led to chaos, as opposition members reportedly voted for weak NRM candidates, who were later defeated in the general elections by opposition candidates.

‘’By transitioning to a digital system, the NRM aims to prevent such irregularities. The digitized register will ensure that only verified party members can participate in the NRM party internal elections, eliminating interference from non-members and opposition supporters. It will also enable the party to know its true membership base, which will help the NRM leadership project results more accurately for the 2026 general elections,’’Onena said.

The administrative secretary for National Resistance Movement (NRM) party for Kole district, Sarafine Odoc, emphasized that digitizing the registers will address issues like duplicate entries and ghost voters.

"The manual register can be tampered with, but the digital system is centralized and cannot be corrupted. I love that," Odoc said.