Making Ugandan Elections Inclusive

On April 25, I had the distinct pleasure of moderating a conversation of Ugandan civil society and government officials in a roundtable about preparing for the 2026 elections. Watch the event here (Passcode: 0XG.K*AW). The full transcript is available below.

[Transcript begins]

Aaberg: Welcome, everyone, to this event by Concerted Effort for Rights Uganda on making elections inclusive of all Ugandans, including Ugandans with disabilities, among others. My name is Rebecca Aaberg, and I am a technical advisor for CERU. I’m very pleased to welcome you today to this important event. We will have a series of speakers to provide their perspectives on elections in Uganda, keeping in mind that of course there are some big elections coming in 2026. We will then transition this into a discussion format with Q&A, so anyone in this meeting can ask a question of the panelists or in fact provide some thoughts that you might have from your own experience. I am now going to turn it over to the Executive Director of CERU, Waswa Yona.

Waswa: Thank you very much, Rebecca, and all the partiipants for joining this round table discussion. My name is Yona Waswa, I am the Executive Director of CERU. This is a civil society organization that focuses on social justice for the marginalized population of Uganda, particularly persons with disabilities, older persons, and others, whose esteem and resilience have gradually succumbed to the immense shocks. CERU champions full inclusion in all civil spaces for all persons, regardless of their identity. We are particularly concerned that previous elections have not been fully inclusive of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable persons. Therefore we made a rapid assessment, in partnership with Westmindter Foundation for Democracy, and glaring gaps were identified in the electoral processes that leave out persons with disabilities. We therefore feel that this roundtable discussion is going to generate ideas and actions on how we can have the forthcoming 2026 general elections inclusive to all Ugandans. I welcome you to this roundtable discussion.

Aaberg: Thank you so much, Yona, for those grounding words as we go into this discussion. I would like now to introduce our three excellent panelists, who will be covering different perspectives today. We look forward to hearing from each of the speakers today. …Osborn, in your role monitoring government bodies to ensure that there is inclusion as part of the National Secretariat, what steps would you advise that the Electoral Commission take to help reduce barriers that persons with disabilities experience in elections?

Turyasangura: Thank you so much, Rebecca and Yona for organizing this. …This is very auspicious. One, I applaud the Electoral Commission for work done, but I fear that there is a lot that is missing when it comes to persons with disabilities. Some of our polling stations…that we still have big challenges, especially with access of some of these polling stations . Both physical access and we also see the challenge that some public buildings and community halls where these activities of the electoral processes take place. For me, for someone who has been participating in these electoral processes, I feel we need to have an improvement especially in terms of accessibility, for example to provide accessible toilets where those elections take place. Sometimes we reach the area and there is [no infrastructure]. The person who suffers most is persons with disabilities. Another thing is inclusive voter education. I think this is another thing the Electoral Commission can do during the electoral period, sign languages, easy to read format. Most persons with disabilities because they have no inclusive voter education. Even when you go to media engagement where persons with disabilities are as part of a bigger announcement. People have to go update their info with the Electoral Commission but you can see there is something to be done with sin language interpretation which makes it harder again for persons with disabilities to be included in all this. So there is a need for inclusive voter education. The government should work with disability organizations like CERU to create and disseminate information because you find where the Electoral Commission cannot reach and there is an organization like CERTU that can reach. Maybe the Electoral Commission should look at partnerships. Partnerships are one way that persons with disabilities can be included in voter education. Training for electoral officials, of course…some of our electoral officials are not very equipped to support persons with disabilities respectfully. Persons with disabilities are ignored; they are not fully inclusive or respectful. They are not…trained on how to handle persons with disabilities as they do their work. You really see that there is a lack of training to handle persons with disabilities especially during these processes. So maybe there is a need to use demonstrations during training on how to handle very disabilities’ needs so that when a person with disabilities goes to a station where the election is there is a demonstration happening to handle such cases. We also need to have assistive services on Election Day. Sign language interpreters will be there at the stations where the need is, and personal assistants are also very important. There should be personal assistants at polling stations to assist persons with disabilities, especially in their choice of voting. [inaudible] are designed by use of symbols which help persons with intellectual disabilities. Technology, investigate how mobile voting options for those with mobility disabilities. We also need to review the roles that ensure the guarantee to the rights to accommodate persons with disabilities, especially in their legal frameworks. If we really have an inclusive policy and legal framework that ensures we cater to persons with disabilities, how to we collect the data on persons with disabilities participation. How do we then guarantee they have their right and accommodations for such that when persons with disabilities are coming to participate, they are not just coming to participate but their choices are respected. Those are my ideas, which I think if given an opportunity, I’d advise the local commission to work on a few of those issues so that we have inclusive processes for persons with disabilities.

Aaberg: Thank you so much, Mr Turyasangura. I think this has been a great way to start our conversation — thinking about inclusion, not just on Election Day but also in the legal frameworks, voter education, and all of the other ways that voters and other participants can engage in elections. With that in mind, I think we can now turn to the international perspective. Sarah, I’m wondering if you could share with us what some of the other election commissions in other countries are doing to include persons with disabilities, especially young persons with disabilities. Maybe some of these strategies can be used by the election commissions in Uganda, among other places.

Timreck: Thank you very much, Rebecca, and thank you to CERU for inviting me to this roundtable. Talking about this is really important. They are important considerations for the elections in Uganda in 2026. I’d like to share what we do at IFES and some of the examples that we have around the world. Of course, I offer these are suggestions and references for you all as you’re going into this election period and as the election management body (EMB) starts to prepare. Something that I think is really important and has been shared by my fellow speakers at this roundtable is that when we think about the inclusion in the electoral cycle and when we think about accessibility on Election Day. Something that is really important to us is that we know the elections don’t become inclusive on Election Day; they’re made inclusive across the electoral cycle. On the screen, I’m sharing a graphic of the electoral cycle. The pre-electoral period, where registration takes place, the electoral period when voting takes places and we have results counted, and the post-electoral period. Within this cycle, we have a lot of examples of how to be inclusive of persons with disabilities, persons who are potentially marginalized in the country to ensure their meaningful engagement. For example, in the pre-electoral period, consultations with organizations of person with disabilities and in the post-electoral period, creating those relationships between EMBs and civil society for meaningful consultation throughout the whole process and how that could potentially be integrated into the Ugandan elections. Starting with pre-elections, it its important that all eligible voters can register to vote and all eligible candidates can run for office. As has been discussed, making voter education accessible is really critical. It’s critical that they have the information in advance, and one way to do this is making voter education as inclusive as possible. That could be disseminating information across different channels like social media, radio, or in person. It could be different formats, such as videos, audio recordings, different languages, and in sign language so Deaf voters can communicate more effectively. Sign language interpreters can use the words and phrases to communicate information. One country in which we have done this is Senegal, where we have engaged representatives of the Deaf community to develop this lexicon in relevant terms in the Senegalese context. Because of this efforts, sign language is now included in the EMB’s voter education messages. This is one examples of how EMBs are engaging actively with the disability community to increase accessibility. The other example on the slide is about  supporting women in politics, providing knowledge to diverse populations to advance their inclusion in political and civic life. This is something we’ve done through our Power to Persuade program, which supports women with disabilities in serving as leaders in their communities and influencing policy making. This could be at the community level, the national level, and the program starts with women as advocates. It builds networks for them to support one another, to amplify their voices for democracy. We’ve done this in Nepal and many countries where women who engaged in the program went on to develop advocacy plans to promote the rights of women with disabilities in Nepal and their inclusion in public life. This resulted in women who were trained; women alumni engaged directly with elected officials. Of course, this affects elections in that we see women who have been trained in this program, and women with disabilities who feel supported in their engagement are also engaging in elections. People are not always automatically included on Election Day. They need these resources and information in advance ad to feel confident to be engaged. During the electoral period, we typically focus on voting processes and making sure those are accessible to all voters. This could be the physical polling center. This could be the voting procedures. Of course, we recognize that persons with disabilities can also serve as poll workers and candidates, but just for the purposes of this presentation, I’ll focus on the voting process. As we’ve discussed already in this roundtable, ensuring that polling places are accessible is critical. One way we’ve done this is to support our local partners with an election access observation. This provides recommendations for future elections to ensure everyone can vote and can use the polling place. We’ve done this in Guyana, for example, where young persons with disabilities observed over 560 polling stations. This looks at features such as stairs, uneven walkways, the width of the door to ensure that persons who use wheelchairs can enter the space. Tactile ballot guides, assistive technology, all of those features can vote independently and freely. We also look at accessible voting procedures, so I offer a few questions to consider when thinking about the accessibility of Election Day. Are voters with disabilities able to vote freely and independently? Do they have measures in place to provide accommodations or support? Is information on these accommodations shared? We also engage EMBs to walk through a polling stations that’s accessible or inaccessible through a simulation by blindfolding volunteers to try to navigate the polling station or in a wheelchair or as a Deaf voter to see whether polling stations are indeed accessible. So we think through all the features from entering the polling station to leaving that might be needed to ensure that voters can vote. An important phase for inclusivity of elections in the post-election period. What reforms are needed? One way to do that is through policy and legal frameworks that impact how the EMB operates. One global tool that IFES has developed is Developing a Disability Inclusion Policy: A Strategic Planning and Implementation Guide for EMBs. It provides considerations for developing that policy, to inform procedures and operations and this can be used to advocate for greater disability inclusion. In this guide, what would I point to is there are several really useful annexes, how they’ve put this into practice. How is the EMB working with persons with disabilities? How are they engaging with one another to make meaningful change and make inclusion a mainstay of elections? One example is in Sri Lanka, the Disability Inclusive Election Sri Lanka working group that brings together civil society with the EMB to advance disability-inclusive elections. They have made great strides into creating tool and resources that voters can use. Finally, i would just say that this is really the key: that inclusion and accessibility are importantly considerations across the electoral cycle. It’s something we can always work to improve or strive for. What would it look like to engage diverse populations across the electoral cycle and commit to adapting practices to their interests?

Aaberg: Thank you so much, Sarah. Now that we have covered some of the considerations there might be in advancing inclusive elections, perhaps we can turn now to Mr Bosco Mgabirano, the head of the special section in the EMB, who can speak to what steps the EMB is taking to ensure that all Ugandans with disabilities, can participate.

Mgabirano: Thank you, Rebecca, for giving me this opportunity to share the story from the Electoral Commission. Some measures that other panelists think EC should be undertaking, we are actually undertaking already. As you may be aware, the Electoral Commission was established under Article 60 of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. Elections are free if everybody is willing to participate can do so without any hindrance or obstacle. In the year 2000, the Electoral Commission established a desk for special interest groups to operationalize inclusive elections. We have also ensured that all voting locations and registration centers in the country are either accessible by persons with disabilities, especially those with physical disabilities, and I undertook this exercise of reorganization of polling stations last year. We ensured that quite a number of our voting locations are easily accessible by persons with disabilities. We have also taken on the mantle of ensuring that all our field staff provide preferential attention to persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups during the electoral activities. For example, if they’re in the queue, we make sure we pick them out of the queue and they are given priority to vote first. In terms of trainings, even next month, we’re also going to undertake training of staff in preparation for the general elections. When it comes to stakeholder engagement, we have been engaging stakeholders through [events like this one]. The Commission has also been intentional in ensuring that we reach out to organizations of persons with disabilities and other organizations that are working on issues to do with vulnerable groups. Whenever we have activities, we usually have workshops, and we usually invite stakeholders from different organizations, not including, of course, organizations that deal with persons with disabilities. As the Electoral Commission, we have also been undertaking benchmarking studies from other countries and other EMBs. We’ve had to share experiences, and I’ve also borrowed one or two ideas. We have begun the process of recruiting sign language interpreters, and we are going to have at least one sign language interpreters per region. This is the direction that we have not been taking, but in this coming general election we are going to have sign language interpreters, and we hope this will help in the dissemination of information. The Electoral Commission has made a [commitment] to ensure that whatever information we disseminate in accessible formats for persons with different kinds of disabilities. We are using different platforms for dissemination of information, such as radios, commuter radio, print media, audio visuals, brochures, social media. We use workshop and seminars to invite stakeholders, including from persons with disabilities’ organizations. We conducted an exercise for voter verification exercise of persons with disabilities. During this exercise, the chairpersons from the respective villages of this country were engaged in village meetings and were able to identify persons with disabilities, capture their details, capture their categories of disabilities, and then who who are not on the register were able to identify them and advised them to get registered so that they are part and parcel of the electoral process. This is one of the steps that we’ve used to encourage persons with disabilities to be part and parcel of this exercise. As the Electoral Commission, we have also ensured that all our office premises are accessible to persons with disabilities. If you’ve been to Electoral Commission headquarters, there’s a specific parking space for you. We have quite a number of ramps so you can easily access for persons with physical disability. Our washrooms have also been made disability friendly to the standard that is required. We’re also encouraging, and we’ve stated the process of ensuring, that all our upcountry offices are easily accessible by persons with disabilities, so we don’t have instances where they are not able to  access our offices. I also wanted to inform us all that beginning the second to tenth of June 2025 we are going to begin nominations for six council committees. These are for older persons, youth, and persons with disabilities, so I implore all those who would want to participate in these elections to make sure they get nominated or they are part and parcel of the whole process. I also encourage all of us here — we have begun the exercise of display of the voter register, and in this case, we are also displaying registers of special interest groups for youth, older persons, and persons with disabilities. The display has already begun today and ends on 8th May. The general one is also beginning today and ending 15th May, so if any one of you would like to participate in the upcoming elections, either through voting or contesting, I encourage every one of you to make sure that you cross check to see if your particulars are in the register. If they are not there, you will be given a form.

Aaberg: Thank you so much, Mr Bosco. This is just such a wonderful description of all the things that Election Commission Uganda is doing to ensure that everyone has access to their right to vote and to contest as well. I hope those who are in the audience have taken good note of those dates that you mentioned for checking up on their registration and for signing up to contest in elections.

[Questions removed for privacy. Answers are provided below.]

Mgabirano: Thank you for that question; I appreciate it shows that you have an interest in the electoral process. That’s a good thing. Of course, on the issue of voting locations, as you may be aware, one of the reasons why we do reorganization is to ensure that these voting locations are in accessible places, public places. We make sure that we are as close to the voters as possible. Sometimes the challenges we face…sometimes you find that where it should be is a private place. Unfortunately, the law does not allow us to put polling station in a private place, so we are forced to look for the nearest public places where we can have this polling station. Apart from that, the other challenge we face is finances. We have a limit of the number of public sessions that we can be able to relate within a general election cycle, otherwise you will find a solution where there are only two voters at a polling station. Financially, that doesn’t make sense, but we are trying to put in an extra effort to see that persons with disabilities are included even in the early voting. They are located to make sure they do not move long distances to vote.

Turyasangura: Especially when it comes to people with disabilities, a lot more is needed. Even when there are those few things that the Electoral Commission has put in place, you realize there is a lot missing, especially when it comes to people with inabilities in the electoral cycle. I think that we need to put up a strong partnership system such that the commission can reach out to other partners, also civil society organizations. I think the Electoral Commision has not reached out to many, and as a result, we are missing out on key issues that we have raised here. What hurts me most is someone voting a person not of his or her choice as a result of not putting systems in place. I can vote for Yona because you and I want to see whom I have voted, things like that. I cannot access a polling station because there is no infrastructure to enable me to get to that polling station. We end up, of course, leaving out a bit number of people with disabilities to air out their views but also to make their independent choices or decisions in these electoral processes. Otherwise, I think CERU should also…we also need, like I said. We also have social media and internet gaps with some of our people. I think we now need to have some of these physical engagements and reach out to the communities, especially that some of our people in those villages who have not, maybe they are not conversant with the internet and therefore they are missing out on this very important information. I believe that some of the questions I know that they have which are very important, which I think we also need to reach out to them and hear what they are saying. Otherwise, in your next engagement, we are here to partner together to make sure that we take this message to the grassroots level because they have a full structure from the village up to the national level. Let’s join our efforts and reach out to these communities where the internet and whatever technology hasn’t reached.

Mgabirano: Of the Local Government Act, it provides that a voter may by reason of literacy or age or any other disability unable to fix the authorized choice on the paper, that person may report at the polling stations accompanied by a person of his or her choice to assist the voter to affix the authorized mark on the ballot paper. I think that is very clear. We cannot use an election officer, a candidate’s agent, an observer, or any other person that is employed in electoral-related matters. Meaning by the time you go to the poling station, if you do not, let’s say, have a person or you don’t go with your person of choice, then the presiding officer might request you to choose people among us who are just around.

Aaberg: Thank you so much, Mr Bosco. I will note as well that this is in alignment with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which also protects the right to select a person of your choice to assist in voting.

Mgabirano: One of the challenges [that the Election Commission is facing] is the Persons with Disabilities Act under Schedule 3 does not exhaust all disabilities that lead to substantial functional limitations of persons that are provided for. So during registration and verification exercise, especially for persons with disabilities, you find quite a number of categories of disabilities are not catered for. The law looks at eight categories of disabilities, so this is a legal constraint. We also facilitate persons with disabilities who participate in elections at the parliamentary level and [local government] level. Because of financial constraints, this in one way or another leads to low voter turnout, especially for persons with disabilities. With disaggregated data on disability by category, usually this information is collected during the census, where we can be able to plan for a specific number. Then there’s initial public attitude towards persons with disabilities, which seems to be generally negative. This usually hampers our efforts. There’s also voter apathy and this hinders full participation in the process. We also have a challenge of monetization of politics. Quite a number of persons with disabilities might not be exposed to sums of money that most of these other groups use, and they send us their participation. We also have local sign languages so sometimes even when we use interpreters, we might not be able to do the best that we could. Of course…it’s a bit hard bringing these innovations like braille and tactile jackets because it takes. Lot to be able to reach even the rural areas. We are not even sure how they will impress them. It’s a bit of a challenge where most people, especially the vulnerable groups, they want to jump in the process at the mid or tail end. We have been encouraging them to get registered. Some have not been registered up to now. When it is time for elections, there are those who want to participate but because they are not registered, they cannot be able to participate. In most casts, these electoral activities…we have to invite their stakeholders, their leaders to be a part of our workshops and seminars so they can be able to replay and disseminate information. We need to come together in a collective effort like what [CERU] is doing. This is good work. We appreciate it is through such collective effort that we can be able to address these disability issues. of course, then we also have the issue of civic education; this is done by human rights. I think we can partner with them and they can partner with other entities to see how best they can intensify on their civic education. The public also needs to be sensitized…I usually tell people that everyone is a candidate for disability, so the environment we make inclusive for all of us the better. I can also talk about other engagements. We can see how it is engaging on how best to have the disability inclusive environment for adequate planning.

Timreck: People’s lived experiences can be very different. That could be someone, a person with a disability, a young persons with a disability, a woman living in a rural area. It’s important to consider all of these different experiences when we think about elections and really think about how to maximize inclusion and accessibility. It’s certainly not easy, but it sounds like the upcoming Ugandan elections are making great strides towards that.

Mgabirano: I would like to assure you that as the Electoral Commission we want to see our elections as inclusive as possible. We are putting an effort towards that direction. We might not be there yet, but we shall be there. You actually will be giving Uganda as one of the examples of those EMBs.

Waswa: Thank you for everyone who has made their time to participate in this roundtable conversation. I cannot thank the panelists enough. You have all come with expertise that has given value to this conversation.

[Transcript ends]