The ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the first custom-built Regional Office of the Electoral Commission, West Nile Region, will take place today, Friday, 15th December 2023, at the construction site located on Plot 2, Municipal By-pass, Arua City, starting at 10 am.
The ceremony will feature speeches by Government and Electoral Commission officials, Arua City officials and project stakeholders, as well as a ceremonial ground-breaking to mark the beginning of construction.
The Arua Regional Office marks the first of the regional offices the Commission plans to construct across the country in a phased manner over the medium term.
Currently, Uganda has 146 districts and cities which the Commission has grouped into twelve (12) operational regions.
During this Financial Year 2023/2024, the Government provided Shs. 1.86bn towards the construction of the first customised Regional Election Centre in Arua City, for West Nile Region.
The customised regional office will enable the Commission to conduct a range of administrative work, data processing, and training, and will also work as a nomination and results tallying centre.
The construction of regional offices also aims at reducing expenditure on rental costs. It further aims at improving effectiveness and efficiency in the provision of electoral services. The customised storage facilities will particularly ensure cost-effective transportation and storage of election materials.
The construction work will be undertaken by the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) of the UPDF at a cost of Shs. 4.699bn.
By mugula Dan