In November last year, a team of developers at Afrosoft IT Solutions rolled out an Electoral Commission (EC) mobile application, to bridge the gap between the electoral commission, media, and the public. This to ease access to information on Uganda’s forthcoming 2021 general elections as well as educate voters and sensitize citizens on the electoral process.
“The app is to bridge citizen’s electoral knowledge, facilitate voter education and provide a platform to engage with key constituents of the electoral process, the media and EC officials to have free and fair election,” Mr. Ronald Katamba, the team lead for the project told PC Tech Magazine.
Prior the new developments which include; addition of six (6) languages, a list of aspiring Members of Parliament, the platform; the EC App which is available for download of Google Playstore (Android), and App Store (iOS/iPhone) allowed citizens to view their voter’s information, report a case, view information on Presidential Candidates, share their common political interest, interact and share their views through the dialogue section, and receive updates from EC.
In addition to the new updates, citizens can now attach photos, audio clips and videos while reporting a case to the EC.
Mr. Katamba says, “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.” Those without smartphones can use a USSD code to access information on electoral information.
With the app, the EC has the right of controlling, managing, and coordinating all functionalities on the app. They are in position of answering citizens and media questions, participate in citizen’s dialogues, send updates to media houses; and so forth.
Ahead of the forthcoming elections, a number of applications on elections have been rolled out including Uchaguzi app and the UVote app all to ease of access to information on electoral and voter education.
