Pure Good Governance

The 2015/2016 general elections are probably going to be the most crucial elections that Uganda has seen in its post independence era.  Besides coming hot on the heels of an already tensed up electoral terrain, these are going to be the first elections in which most (if not all) of the eligible voters aged 18 years and above will be on the voters’ register and capable of voting.  Thanks to the Electoral Commission’s decision to extract eligible voters’ particulars from the National Identification Register!  If well managed, the 2016 voters' register will be the first, most inclusive register, carrying all eligible Ugandans on the voters’ roll.   Now, you may wonder how this will change the political contours of Uganda. Unlike in the past elections where we have had large numbers of voters missing out on the actual voting because they weren’t listed on the register, 2016 is going to be an election where all eligible voters will actually be on the voters' regist...

The 2008 Zimbabwe election has been one of the most hotly contested races on the African continent in recent times. In that election, the  twenty-eight year political rule of President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic  Front (ZANU–PF) was stiffly challenged by new comer, Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T). The tight nature of the race could not avail Zimbabwe an outright President in the first round, a reason why a run-off was called later in the year. As fate would have it then, Mugabe (aka ‘Uncle Bob’) beat Tsvangirai. Many have contended by all intents and purposes that this was Tsvangirai’s election.  These sentiments partly informed the latter occurrences where the Zimbabwe government of 2008 – 2013 had to be shared between ‘Uncle Bob’ and Tsvangirai through a government of national unity arrangement.   Having had an opportunity to interface with the subsequent 2013 Zimbabwe election first ha...