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EC explains importance of Voter Location Slips
Electrol Commisssion Chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama
The Electoral Commission is today Sunday January 3, 2021, starting to issue Voter Location Slips to voters across the country to enable them conveniently locate their respective polling stations on polling day.
The Electoral Body says the Slip bears the particulars of a voter, i.e: The photograph, names, date of birth, and location (that is, the district, constituency, sub county, parish and polling station).
EC says the VLS was introduced as a response to complaints raised in the past elections, where some voters reported difficulty in locating their polling stations.
The Voter Location Slips (VLS) will be issued for a period of ten (10) days, from Sunday 3rd to Tuesday 12th January 2021 at each Parish/Ward across the country.
In addition to the voters’ details, the EC says the VLS bears a unique barcode which will be read by the Biometric Voter Verification machines which will be deployed at all polling stations across the country.
The EC says that although the VLS is not a must-have for anyone to vote, it will help voters to be easily identified as voters of that particular poling station by election officials who will be armed with biometric reading gadgets that check the VLS.
“Please note that only a person whose particulars appear on the Polling Day Register will be issued a VLS during this issuance exercise. However, the Voters’ Register is the primary document for the purpose of polling. Accordingly, a voter whose name is on the Voters’ Register but is unable to produce a VLS on Polling Day will be allowed to vote,” says the Electoral body.
The EC has urged used by voters to pick the slips from parish/wards headqauters and secure them as they will be used during four rounds of forthcoming general elections. I.e
Presidential/Parliamentary elections on Jan 14, 2021,
District/City Chairpersons and Councillors elections – Jan 20, 2021,
Municipality/City Division Chairpersons and Councilors and Sub-county/Town/Municipal Division Chairpersons and Councilors elections on Jan 25, 2021.
EC says the Voter location slip (VLS) is free of charge and should only be picked by the voter in person from the Parish/Ward Supervisor who is an employee of the Commission.
Alternatively, the EC has created a web section that allows voters to locate their polling stations using their National ID NIN number using the following address
https://www.ec.or.ug/search/byid/
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