By Kabuye Ronald
The Electoral Commission will effectively Sunday 3rd, Jan, 2021 to Tuesday issue Voter Location Slips (VLS) to voters across the country to enable them conveniently locate their respective polling stations on polling day at each Parish/Ward across the country.
According to the Electoral commission chairperson Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, the VLS is a response by the Commission to complaints raised in the past elections, where some voters reported difficulty in locating their polling stations.
The VLS bears the particulars of a voter, namely: photograph, names, date of birth, and location (that is, the district, constituency, Sub County, parish and polling station). The VLS also bears a unique barcode which will be read by the Biometric Voter Verification machines which will be deployed at all the 34,684 polling stations across the country.
The VLS will be used by voters at four rounds of elections during the General Elections (2021) namely; at the Presidential/Parliamentary; District/City Chairpersons and Councillors; Municipality/City Division Chairpersons and Councilors; and Sub-county/Town/Municipal Division Chairpersons and Councillors elections.
Justice Byabakama says that the Voter location slip (VLS) is free of charge and shall only be picked by the actual voter in person from the Parish/Ward Supervisor who is an employee of the Electoral Commission.
“The Commission calls upon all registered voters to collect their Voter Location Slips from their respective Parish Headquarters. Voters are further advised to carefully secure their Voter Location Slips, so that the barcode is not tampered with.
Please note that only a person whose particulars appear on the Polling Day Register will be issued a VLS during this 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.” said Byabakama
