"Oh when the saints go marching in, oh Lord I want to be in that number, of when the saints go marching in". It is morning in Hotel Mount Moroto in Central Karamoja, and today the opening prayer takes form of a song.
A song that comes from eleven Civic Educators from Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC) who have come together to share their experiences of working with electoral processes in Karamoja.
Civic Educators train the community members in understanding Electoral processes
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| The bike Anna Grace will use to reach far away communities to educate about electoral procedures. Photo: Mai Gad |
With the support from DanChurchAid, UJCC trains Civic Educators to build the civic capacity of the people in Karamoja, in areas of free and fair elections, rights of citizens and qualifications of candidates at various elective positions.
They also cover peace and mediation, roles of different stakeholders in electoral process (e.g. Electoral Commission, political parties and Civil Society Organizations) as well as procedures for voting and on polling day.
"We train the Civic Educators in Good Governance, free and fair elections, the qualification of a candidate and how to vote," Canon Joyce Nima, the Head of Peace-building and Conflict-transformation in UJCC explains.
They are working hard because the upcoming elections in Uganda for Members of Parliament and Presidential Election will take place in December 2010 and in January-February 2011.
Many people in remote areas of Uganda such as in the Karamoja Region are ignorant about the procedures of elections and their role and rights in elections. Since Uganda gained independence in 1962 the very few elections in the country have been characterized by rigging, bribery and party or ethnic based violence. Often the most impoverished people are left out of the process due to fear and/ or intimidation, particularly the women in rural settings.
Corruption will be reported
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| Anna Grace, a 44-year civic educator. Photo: Mai Gad |
"In many cases the candidates pay people money to get their vote, and we even had a case where the people were mislead and told that one day is for voting for this candidate and tomorrow you have to vote for the other candidate. People got confused and all voted for the same person the first day, which was the only day of nomination. We want to avoid this to happen in the future," Anna Grace, a 44-year civic educator explains.
Anna Grace drives around on her bicycle in the mountainous terrain of Moroto to educate and explain the community members about free and fair elections.
"We educate people on how to vote, for example some people think that they can vote for two candidates. We also encourage people to report to the police if they see corruption," she says.
To the question of who Anna Grace will vote for in the upcoming elections, her answer is crystal clear: "That is confidential, even when the community members ask us, we don’t tell them, we say, now it is up to you to vote wisely.”
Anna Grace has worked as a civic educator for UJCC since 2004, and in the coming elections she will be one of the 6000 Poll Watchers and Monitors of UJCC who will monitor the local governments to ensure peaceful elections.
From violent conflicts to dialogue
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| Canon Joyce Nima, the Head of Peace-building and Conflict-transformation in UJCC. Photo: Mai Gad |
In 2001 DanChurchAid began supporting UJCC in training religious leaders in conflict resolution through the Democracy and Good Governance component. Conflict resolution is still a component in the work with monitoring fair elections. In Uganda, and especially in Karamoja, elections have often resulted in conflict.
"In this country we have fought many wars because we don’t have frameworks for resolving conflicts, it has been either on the question of resources or power," Canon Joyce Nima from UJCC explains.
"One of the main conflicts we have had, was that people were dissatisfied with elections and instead of asking for another election they went to fight in the bush. We need to break this cycle that when you have a conflict you use force, we want to educate people to use dialogue as the first choice," she says.
Ensuring peaceful and fair elections
Empowering communities is a strategy for building peace, governance and participation in government activities in the community. Documentation and reporting is also a component in the work of UJCC to promote free and fair elections.
"During the nominations and campaigns the civic educators will observe and record, who is campaigning where, what is the issue, who is threatened to fight, who is bribing and what is taking place. We then use the documentation to publish a report to the Election Commission," Canon explains.
Through debates around Uganda under the theme "The Uganda We Want: Towards Free and Fair Elections in 2011" UJCC gathers peoples view on good governance and fair elections and presents it to the Government under the Parliamentary Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
"We want to transform the instruments of violence into elements of development," Canon explains.
Education on election is popular in Karamoja
The civic educators have met challenges, because many people have not been aware that to vote you had to register back in June.
"When I spoke in a village the other day, I found out that out of 45, 20 had not registered to vote, and now it is too late. We hope that in the future we will avoid this. For now what we can do, is to work for a peaceful election for those who have the right to vote,” Anna Grace says.
Luckily most people are interested and open towards the work of UJCC and their Civic Educators, she explains:
"When I pass by people on my bike, they sometime stop me, and ask if I can explain more about the fair elections.”
By Mai Gad