The election of the Village Council (LC1) elections took place on July 10, 17 years after the country last conducted such elections in 2001 under the Movement System where candidates were elected on individual merit since multi-party democracy was not in existence like it is today.
Before the latest elections that had candidates of different political parties and independents participate were held, a new study whose findings were released in November last year, revealed that Ugandan citizens trust information provided by village council Chairmen than the president and any other political leader in the country.
The survey was done by Twaweza East Africa, a nongovernmental organisation working in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania on effective public and policy engagement, through powerful media partnerships and global leadership of initiatives such as the Open Government Partnership.
The research referred to as Sauti za Wananchi (representative mobile phone survey) interviewed 1,980 people, with 45 per cent saying they would trust their LC1 Chairmen than the president at 34 per cent, the same with an LCV Councilor.
The percentage of citizens interviewed who said they would trust information obtained from any government official, the Prime Minister, an MP from NRM, ruling party member/supporter, an MP from opposition party and opposition party member/supporter comprised 31 per cent, 28 per cent, 26 per cent, 25 per cent, 22 percent and 21 per cent respectively.
The question probing how free citizens are to criticize information and statements provided by leaders, 68 per cent, 64 per cent, 59 per cent, 56 per cent, 50 per cent, 48 per cent, 47 per cent, 46 per cent, 45 per cent and per cent said they were free to criticize village/street chairmen, LCIII Chairperson, LCV Chairperson, government institution, Chief Administrative Officer, Minister, Prime Minister Vice President and president respectively.
Further the 67 per cent of the citizens contacted believed they would get information from the office of the LCIII on birth certificates while only 41 per cent believed they would get information on development plans and budgets from local authority. A further 50 per cent believed that they would get information from a local school on how much of the capitalization fund has been received.
The findings shows that 96 per cent of the people interviewed prefer going physically to a government office or authority to seek for information while 29 per cent said they would use a phone instead. A few respondents opted personal connections, social media, email, fax and others respectively.
However, the findings showed 27 per cent, 27 per cent, 26 per cent and 25 per cent were not free to criticize information and statements from the president, Vice President, Prime Minister and Minister.
This Sauti za Wananchi data is premised on public access to information and freedom of expression as cornerstones of good governance and democracy.