#Election2016: 30 questions journalists must answer

By Peter G. Mwesige

Dear friends in the Ugandan media I hope you will help me and other citizens answer the following questions, and many others, as we follow the news from Election Day, Thursday, to Saturday, when the winner of the presidential election is constitutionally expected to be announced.

1. Did the polls open as stipulated in law and regulations?
2. How was the logistical preparedness of the Electoral Commission officials?
3. Did the biometric voter verification system work?
4. How transparent was the voting?
5. Were all party agents present?
6. Was there respect of voting procedures?
7. Were the ballot boxes sealed?
8. Did voting end at the stipulated time?
9. Were voters able to find their polling stations easily?
10. Did voters find their names on the voters’ register?
11. Did people participate in the election? How is the comparison to previous elections?
12. Was the EC’s ban on mobile phones and cameras enforced?
13. Did counting proceed without incident?
14. Did all parties agree on the counting methods?
15. Did the numbers of votes correspond with registered voters?
16. Did the voting and counting take place in a peaceful atmosphere? Did the Electronic Results Transmission and Dissemination System work smoothly?
17. Was the army deployed? Was police deployed? How many cases of election irregularity were reported, if any?
18. Did the security forces behave appropriately?
19. Who is leading according to preliminary results?
20. What are the preliminary verdicts of local and foreign observers? Was the election free and fair?
21. Was the playing field level?
22. Were electoral reforms passed? Was it done in time?
23. How was the preparedness of the EC overall?
24. What was the message of the candidates?
25. What issues were the voters interested in?
26. What were the candidate/party strategies? What stood out?
27. Who was leading according to the opinion polls?
28. How have the candidates/parties performed in previous elections?
29. What was the role of money in elections?
30. Did the candidates perform according to expectation?

***

Dr. Peter G. Mwesige is co-founder and executive director of African Centre for Media Excellence. He previously headed the department of journalism & communication at Makerere University and was executive editor of Monitor Publications Ltd.

Email: mwesige@acme-ug.org Twitter: @pmwesige