The Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) is a broad based Civil Society Coalition that brings together citizens and Civil Society groups to advocate for electoral democracy in Uganda. CCEDU currently has over 500 organizations that subscribe to the platform to promote electoral freedoms and practice, transparency and accountability based on active citizens’ participation in Uganda’s electoral process.
CCEDU has four main organizational pillars. At its apex, CCEDU has a two tier Board. The Executive Board is largely composed of institutional representatives and promoters of CCEDU including Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) , Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), The Uganda National NGO Forum, The Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE), Human Rights Network (HURINET), DENIVA, Inter–religious Council, Uganda Muslim Council, Uganda Media Development Foundation, Uganda Journalists Network, NAKUFHANO etc. The Board is chaired by the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI).
The Advisory Board composed of various interest configuration representatives including farmers’ groups, business associations, women groups, student & youth groups, elderly, faith based groups, development oriented groups, workers, human rights groups, media, health and people living with HIV and AIDS. It is chaired by Africa Leadership Institute.
Day to Day management and policy implementation at CCEDU is carried out by a full time three person secretariat composed of a Project Coordinator, Project Communications Manager and a Volunteer.
CCEDU premises its activities mainly on a four point agenda which includes Electoral Reform Advocacy, Civic Education, Legal Defense Fund and Coordination of domestic monitors and international election observers.
In line with its electoral reform agenda, CCEDU on February 16, 2010 made written submissions to the Parliamentary Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the four Electoral reform bills which were under review.
The proposed Amendment bills included the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill 2009, the Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill 2009, the Political Parties and Organizations (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the Electoral Commission (Amendment Bill) 2009. (The CCEDU memorandum can be accessed at www.ugandawatch2011.org)
In April 2010, CCEDU launched a National Media Campaign on thirty National and Community Based FM Radio stations in partnership with the Media Focus for Africa Foundation with financial support from Deepening Democracy Programme (DDP).
This campaign specially targets the registration period for voters and the display period. The CCEDU campaign utilises Radio spot advertisements, talk shows and Dee jay mentions to mobilise citizens to massively register and vote in the 2011 General elections. CCEDU in partnership with the DEM- Group with support of National Democratic Institute (NDI) also launched the Uganda Watch 2011; as part of its monitoring strategy in the ongoing electoral process. The effort, which has since inception attracted growing public participation, will run until thirty days after the official voting date for the 2011 general elections. The Uganda Watch 2011 is a multi language SMS text hotline that relies on active citizens’ participation through short text message reportage of notable electoral best practices and malpractices in the run up to the elections. In this initiative, incoming messages are verified and posted as news items on a web site www.ugandawatch2011.org.
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