A team of developers at Afrosoft IT Solutions are developing an Electoral Commission (EC) mobile application, to bridge the gap between the electoral commission, media, and the public by easing communication and providing valuable voter information to citizens of Uganda —in country or in diaspora.
According to their team lead, EC in its work flow shares lots of information remotely to both the
public and media houses and as a result “there’s need to have a platform that will effectively facilitate their operations.” He told PC Tech Magazine.
Therefore team is developing an app that they will soon launch later this month that shall help the Electoral Commission distribute legitimate information about the guidelines on elections to the general public. The public will be able to know the political contestants in any constituency through this technology, as well as help voters to check and verify their votability.
The information on the app as seen by PC Tech Magazine is presented in a way that it makes it easier for the user to draw meaning out of it. The app is self explanatory, easy to navigate, color friendly and swift.
The app is being developed for three persons; the Citizens, Media Houses, and the Electoral Commission. Each of these person will have different access and set of features.
As seen on the app, the Citizens can; view their voter’s information, report a case, view contestants (from Local Councils to Mayors to Members of Parliament and Presidential Candidates), share their common political interest, interact and share their views through the dialogue section, and receive updates from EC.
Media Houses will use the app to get direct information and any other updates from the EC without the need of going to their offices. Unlike Citizens who don’t need to register to use the app, Media persons have to register and be verified to use the app.
And finally the Electoral Commission who the app is being developed for. The body will have the right of controlling, managing, and coordinating all functionalities on the app. They will be in position in answering citizens and media questions, participate in citizen’s dialogues, send updates to media houses; and so forth.
The head team lead of the project told PC Tech Magazine that, “With this Covid-19 pandemic, we believe this technology will be a game changer allowing people with or without smartphones access information about elections remotely.”
The app is being developed for all users with or without a smartphone. On smartphones, the app will be available for download of Google Playstore (Android), and App Store (iOS/iPhone) while those without smartphones will use USSD based application.
