Few waited in suspense to discover who would be the winner of Uganda's presidential poll that took place on February 18. Public opinion polls showed President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country for the past 25 years, was the favored candidate. Yet, despite the predictability of this election, it differed greatly from past elections as voters were able to verify their voter registration and find out the location of their polling station through SMS. 

In past presidential and parliamentary elections, Ugandan voters — of whom 13,954,129 registered for this month’s poll — had no easy way of enquiring about their registration status or their assigned polling station. This was especially problematic as the Electoral Commission of Uganda reserves the right to shift citizens from overcrowded polling stations but does not issue notices of these changes. It was therefore not uncommon for voters to become confused about where they should cast their ballots.

To remedy this situation, an SMS service was introduced to the electorate in January 2010 that allows voters to verify their polling station location via text message prior to and on Election Day. Launched by Electoral Commission (EC) Chairman Dr. Badru Kiggundu, the service allows voters to send an SMS to 8683 — or “VOTE” — with their voter identity numbers or, for newly registered voters, the 17 digit number on their registration receipt. Once the SMS is sent, voters receive a reply confirming their polling station based on the information in the voters register.

When first introduced, the service, which is available on all mobile phone networks, was offered at discounted rates due to an agreement between the electoral commission and the service providers. Starting on January 24 through Election Day, however, 1 million voters were able to find their polling station via SMS for free, thanks to a subsidy provided by the United States Agency for International Development to all mobile networks.

The service has been popular. From January 24 to February 18, 972,738 voters used the service. The greatest number of texts — 179,283 of them — were received the day the polls opened. Demand peaked on Election Day when at one point 70 messages were received per second.

This SMS service is the second new media technology that has been used to facilitate the voting process in Uganda. In 2010 the National Voter Register (NVR) website was introduced to give individuals with access to the Internet the ability verify their registration status and to check the location of their polling station. The SMS service was created to reinforce the benefits of this website by providing people who do not have Internet access the same advantages the online NVR offers. 

Uganda's electoral commission has often been accused of lacking independence and transparency. The introduction of the SMS service and the online voter registry is one of its efforts toward increasing the confidence Ugandans have in the commission. These two services not only help improve the capacity of the commission, they also provide Ugandans better access to the commission's proceedings and allow them to contribute personally toward improving the election process.