The republic of uganda in the supreme court of uganda at kampala

We wish Your Excellency to draw your attention to the Electoral Commission Act. Section 12(1) which confers powers to the Commission and we quote:

“(e) to take measures for ensuring that the entire electoral process is conducted under conditions of freedom and fairness;

(f) to take steps to ensure that there are secure conditions necessary for the conduct of any election in accordance with this act or any other law.”

In addition, Section 20(1) of the Presidential Elections Act, No. 17 of 2000 provides that the Commission shall ensure that the relevant organs of the state provide during the entire period of campaign, protection of each candidate and adequate security at all meetings of candidates.

The Commission is aware of its operational limitation in enforcing the powers under the above mentioned pro visions of the law and had therefore, entrusted the keeping of security during these elections to the Police. The Commission has pointed out to the Police that in case there was need for reinforcing the security deployment, then it would be the Police to seek assistance from other security organs so as to ensure smooth running and conclusion of the entire electoral process.

We also expect that the deployment of PPU is made where the President is expected to be as this is a facility that Your Excellency is entitled to as the incumbent. We have also issued press statements instructing public institutions including RDCs and DISO to treat all candidates equally as is provided for in the Presidential Act 2000 and we expect them to abide by those instructions.

The Commission therefore, would like to request you as Commander- in-Chief of the Armed Forces to instruct armed personnel not to do anything that would be interpreted as interference in the electoral process contrary to law and thus jeopardize the democratization principles that our Country has embarked on since the Government of NRM came into power.
Your early intervention in this matter will go a long way to enable us fulfill our duties as laid out in the Constitution and other Laws of this Country.