Electoral Commission releases voters’ register to presidential candidates as polling day nears

The Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, commenced the issuance of the photo-bearing National Voters’ Register to presidential candidates ahead of the January 15 general elections.

Representatives of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the National Unity Platform (NUP) were the first to receive copies of the register. The Commission said other presidential candidates would be issued with their copies in due course, in line with the law and established procedures.

The development comes amid pressure from the National Unity Platform, which on January 6, 2026, formally wrote to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission demanding the immediate release of an updated paper copy of the National Voters’ Register.

In the letter, NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya expressed concern that with polling day less than two weeks away, the Commission had failed to comply with the law requiring timely distribution of the register to participating political parties.

According to NUP, Section 19 of the Electoral Commission Act, Cap. 176, obliges the Commission to provide political parties with an updated paper copy of the National Voters’ Register, including voter photographs, at least 14 days before polling day.

“The Commission gazetted 15th January 2026 as polling day, yet with fewer than nine days remaining, it has neither transmitted a paper copy of the updated register to NUP nor offered any lawful justification for this failure,” the letter states.

Earlier, NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu accused the Electoral Commission chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama, of deliberately withholding the register, alleging that it contains widespread irregularities.

Kyagulanyi claimed the register includes “tens of thousands of multiple entries, inconsistencies in voters’ details, and names of people who died years ago but remain listed,” among other alleged anomalies.

He further linked the controversy to the recent arrest of Dr. Sarah Bireete and developers of the Fannon App, a digital tool that he said enabled citizens to identify irregularities in the voters’ register.

“There has never been an Electoral Commission as incompetent, partisan, and fraudulent as Byabakama’s,” Kyagulanyi said, calling for electoral reforms.

The Electoral Commission has previously maintained that the National Voters’ Register was compiled and updated in accordance with the law and that all candidates would be facilitated within the legal framework governing the electoral process.