2021 General Elections: Voting for Quality Service Delivery
Loading...
Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Economic and Social Rights Advocacy (ESRA)
Abstract
The focus of this 12th issue of the Economic and Social Rights Advocacy (ESRA) Brief, produced by
the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), has as its theme: 2021 General Elections: Voting
for Quality Service Delivery.
The publication of this ESRA Brief is timely, given that the current term of office for Uganda’s elected
leaders expires on the 12th of May 2021. As has become customary, those contesting for different
offices/positions will, over the next few months, be laser-focused on ensuring that they campaign
successfully and get elected at the next polls scheduled from 10th January to 8th February 2021.1
This edition implicitly asks Ugandans to refrain from getting caught up in the frenetic energy of
political campaigning and to critically assess the extent to which incumbent politicians and parties
have delivered on the promises made in previous manifestos; whether and to what extent they
have been held accountable for failing to deliver on their mandates; it asks citizens to consider the
ways in which they may be complicit in entrenching an electoral system that prioritizes short-term
patronage over long-term service delivery; and the electoral system itself is critiqued, in the light of
the constraints Uganda faces within a global political and economic order, which has budgetary and
policy implications for its ability to practically achieve the economic and social rights to which its
citizens are entitled.