By Isaac Akugizibwe

KIU, Main Campus - The KIU Guild Union Electoral Commission Chairperson, Solomon Oketcho, on Friday 28th, January 2022 launched a road map that will be followed in the forth coming Guild MP and Presidential Elections scheduled for 4th and 11th April 2022 respectively.

According to the roadmap, the 2022 Guild Election calendar will kick off with the recruitment of election officials as follows; the picking and returning of application forms is scheduled for 3rd to 6th February 2022 which is three days before the applicants get intervied in order to assess their eligibility to serve on KIU's supreme electoral body.

Successful election officials will be trained on 14th February 2022, while election materials will be distributed on 15th February 2022. The registration of voters shall commence on 16th February 2022 and end on 4th March 2022 before the display of the voters register between 7th and 12th March 2022.

The roadmap further indicates that Member of Parliament aspirants shall start picking nomination forms on 14th March 2022 and the exercise will last three days. Candidates will be nominated between 18th and 21st March 2021 before they can be allowed to start campaigns from 23rd to 28th March 2022.

Members of Parliament will be voted on 4th April 2022, three days after the stakeholders meeting on the first day of April. Successful college representatives will have a chance to stand for President or back one candidate who shall be nominated on 5th April 2022 according to the roadmap. Successfully nominated Presidential aspirants will have six days to solicit for votes. Thus from 5th -10th April, 2022.

The election of the Guild President on 11th April 2022 is the last event on the road map if all conditions remain constant. While unveiling the road map, KIU Guild Union Electoral Commission Chairperson, Solomon Oketcho, pledged that his team will do everything possible to deliver a peaceful, transparent, free and fair election.

"I would like to assure you that I am ready to work with my team to deliver not only a peaceful and transparent election but also one that is free and fair," Oketcho told students at Almaz Hotel on Friday.

"I urge all KIU Students to participate in this year's election and to also please come and apply to be an election official as I read earlier. This is good for your CV," he added.

The release of the Guild Elections Roadmap marks the peak of a highly anticipated political season at Uganda's leading private university. This is a time when politics and students' leadership take over the airwaves, charts and conversations at KIU - something that has been non-existent for the last two years due to consequences of the unpopular COVID-19.