Maracha District leaders have called upon the Electoral Commission to undertake adequate civic education to avoid a repeat of the voter apathy witnessed in the last general election.

The Electoral Commission on Thursday, July 24 conducted an interface with Maracha District leaders to solicit feedback on the low voter turnout in the last general election.

The West Nile Electoral Commission Supervisor Mr. Juma Shesa said in the 2021 General Elections Maracha District registered voter turn up of 47.7 percent the lowest in the region followed by Arua City and Zombo District respectively.

The Female Councilor for Older Persons to the District Council, Hon. Paskwalina Ogavu observed there is always lack of clarity on the responsible entity to conduct civic education and advocated that going into the next general election this gap needs to be filled. 

“Who goes to the people to tell them we are going for elections for this and this?, what should we do during the elections?, civic education is really not enough, even the LCs they don’t mobilize their people in the villages because they also don’t know what to do,” she said.

The National Unity Platform (NUP) Chairperson in Maracha District, Mr. Martin Obeti stated most local communities are yet to appreciate the role they play in the governance of the country in the end they give a lukewarm response when presented an opportunity.

“They don’t know the importance of voting, there should be enough civic education to everybody up to the grassroot so that they know the importance of voting,” Obeti said.

The Coordinator Office of the National Chairman (ONC) in Yivu Sub-county, Mr. Benard Ababo said the residents could be contented with the status quo but added there should education of communities to go and exercise their voting right.

“People believe our ruling government which is okay, it might true or not so people see it as a wastage of time. If possible we should have continuous sensitization,” he reasoned.

On the question of the demographic turn up, Mr. Robert Odama, a leader said the youth have a poor attitude towards elections much as they could be having informed views on the electoral issues.

“In the elections we have carried out in Maracha District we have seen more participation of the older persons than the youth. Youth don’t take time and come to participate although they have opinions,” he submitted.

Odama said whereas the Electoral Commission bears the biggest mandate of conducting civil education, the candidates should also endeavor to play a supplementary role in order to mitigate challenges associated with low civic education.

“Take responsibility to remind them to come and vote. We register a lot of invalid votes here in Maracha, you see invalid votes like 100-150, it is a clear indication that candidates are not taking enough time to educate the voters,” he pointed out.

 The General Secretary for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party in Maracha District, Hon. Dicky Alema remarked the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders should mobilize communities to embrace the activities leading to polling.

“From the process of registration the youth are not really involved so much as a result when it reaches the climax of the election some youth do go to the polling station and realize their names are not there and that is so disappointing.”

Hon.Iren Alidria, a councilor in Maracha Town Council said women should be rallied to partake in the voting process beyond moral boosting during campaigns arguing they are the most affected by service delivery bottlenecks.

Maracha District Deputy Speaker, Hon. Adrian Drakana said the series of elections conducted during the general election trigger fatigue, which he suggested the electoral body should look into and device means to alleviate.

Some stakeholders suggested the voting arrangement be changed to start with the grassroot elections and end with the presidential elections to keep the momentum for the exercise.

In the 2021 General Elections, the country had a general low turn up for elections where 18 million voters were registered by the Electoral Commission,  of this 11 million queued to vote, while 10 million ballot papers worth millions of shillings went to waste