The Electoral Commission is launching a massive recruitment effort to hire more than a quarter-million temporary staff to manage the 2026 general election, a process that will deploy new technology intended to safeguard the integrity of the vote.
The commission is seeking 253,695 qualified presiding officers and polling assistants for the exercise. This number includes 50,739 presiding officers, one for each polling station, and 202,956 polling assistants. The jobs are short-term contracts, adding to thousands of biometric voter verification kit operators and tally clerks previously advertised.
The application deadline for these new positions is Friday, Dec. 19.
To qualify, presiding officers must hold a Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education or its equivalent. Polling assistants are required to possess a Uganda Certificate of Education or its equivalent. Both positions require applicants to be above age 18, registered voters, of high moral character and preferably residents of the polling area.
Presiding officers will be paid an allowance of 100,000 shillings per polling day, while polling assistants will earn 75,000 shillings per day. The election schedule includes four major polling days — Jan. 15 for president and parliament, and three subsequent days for various local government races — meaning presiding officers will earn at least 300,000 shillings during the main rounds.
New Technology to Eliminate Fraud
The commission is rolling out a biometric voter verification system, assuring the public that the new machines will eliminate ballot stuffing and forgeries.
Hadija Namanda, a data management focal person, explained during a recent training that each ballot paper will carry a bar code, which is scanned and issued to a verified voter. All ballots in the box will be scanned again before counting begins.
“Only ballots verified by the machine with bar codes will be counted,” Namanda said.
EC chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama recently received the initial consignment of 60,000 biometric verification machines. Jennifer Kyobutungi, the Kampala election officer, said two machines will be assigned per polling station, one serving as a backup. She added that voters with eroded fingerprints will be verified using facial recognition technology.
The commission warned that a shortlist of candidates for the newly advertised roles will be displayed at the respective district election offices and that any form of lobbying will result in automatic disqualification.
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