Makerere University Council has abandoned online voting in the next guild elections in favour of physical elections following complaints from some students who cited the lack of a provision for electronic voting and regulations governing the process.
In a letter addressed to the Guild Electoral Commission on Thursday, Winfred Kabambuli, the Dean of Students gave a go-ahead to the commission to organize physical elections as resolved by the University Council.
“The purpose of this letter is to notify you of the council decision and also to ask you to operationalize the physical electoral process by formulating an electoral road map in line with the Makerere University Students Guild Constitution,” Kabambuli wrote.
According to Deo Kayigamba the Chairperson Electoral Commission, the initial decision of a blended mode of voting will only work after the laws have been amended before the elections.
Since students were studying in a phased manner due to the covid-19 pandemic last year, the university organized virtual guild elections to help students who are not on campus vote for their leaders. The virtual voting was accessible on a Makerere University students’ portal.
For students to vote online, they needed to have a university email address and an Identification card. At the time of voting the students would be required to post their pictures on the site to curb acts of impersonation.
In the past election, several students did not vote citing a network shut down which the administration noted was a result of overload on its routers.
