JINJA – Jinja deputy Resident City Commissioner in charge of southern division, Martin Kasonzi, has expressed concern over the ongoing collection of the voter location slips (VLS) syndicate trend by unknown people without owners’ consent.
He fears that this could be a ploy to prevent them from participating in the entire election exercise, which commences with the presidential and parliamentary candidates of their choice scheduled for January 15, 2026.
Whereas the Electoral Commission (EC) offered three options for verifying voters before they would be identified and issued ballot papers to cast their votes, Kasonzi says some voters are ignorant about all of them.
The options include presentation of the VLS and national identification card, which would be inserted in the Biometric Voter Verification Kits (BVVK) to prove if they are genuine voters at particular polling stations or searching for their names manually in the voters’ registers.
Kasonzi raised the concern on January 10, 2026, while witnessing the offloading and assembling of the election materials for Jinja city council ahead of the General Election.
The exercise took place at the office of the EC where Kasonzi represented security.
However, he said some people would be aware of the VLS as the only option for them to take part in the election.
“In case you go and find your slip taken, you lose the morale and interest to participate in the election. Instead, they will abandon the entire exercise because not all of locals are informed of the options,” he said.
Kasonzi said he had received complaints from residents in areas of Walukuba and Masese wards, which are located in Jinja south east including Magwa ward, which is in Jinja south west constituencies.
“There are people who came to my office and complained after going to pick up their slips only to find that they had already been signed for, yet they had not received them. This is unacceptable,” he said.
Martin Kasonzi, the Jinja deputy resident city commissioner in charge of southern division, lamented the ongoing voter location slip collection syndicate. (Credit: Jackie Nambogga)
Whereas they were not sure of those behind this trend, the RCC was suspicious of candidates and or their agents.
“This is a suspicion because no other person who has an interest other than the candidates, it is candidates that can have interest in picking these slips, a common person may not have interest in picking them,” he said.
In such a scenario, he noted that one would turn up early enough to vote in their names in case the BVVK were not being used.
“The suspicion is that if a person took a slip of another one, it would mean that the person would turn up early to vote in their place in case the BVVK were not being used,” he said.
He commended the stakeholders who turned up to witness the offloading process, which he described as transparent because it involved the ruling National Resistance Movement, Opposition and independent representatives.
Jinja city returning officer Flavia Nakasi said all players were needed to verify the 376 ballot boxes and if they had not been tampered with before being kept in a restricted place that wouldn’t be accessed until a time of dispatching them to the various polling stations.
She said they wanted to ensure that the exercise was appreciated to enable the pending process to run smoothly and be on the same pace.
Asuman Kambo, the NRM administrative officer in Jinja city, commended EC for giving them the chance to witness and were sure the materials were in safe hands.
He bragged about how the party’s ground was promising based on the projects undertaken by government, such as the construction of the Crested Crane hotel, Seed secondary school at Loco village, including roads, provision of iron sheets to schools, including the ongoing construction and modernisation of the Source of River Nile.
With such gains, Kambo said they expect to win by 85%.
Bilali Muwada, who represented the National Unity Platform (NUP) political party, appealed to the EC to ensure a free and fair exercise by not following directives.
He maintained their push to remain at polling stations as per the law that requires anyone to be 20 metres away.
“What destabilised our country was the current president in power, who claimed that his victory had been rigged. After 40 years in power, candidate Yoweri Museveni has no new ideas,” Muwada said.
Kasonzi warned against threats, saying that as security, they were ready to deliver a peaceful process and asked residents to turn up in big numbers and vote.