Michelle Kirabo is the new Guild President of Victoria University after emerging winner of the online guild elections successfully held at the Jinja-Road-based institution.
Kirabo, a second-year Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies garnered 461 (74.8%) votes to defeat her rival Abdul-Basit Kasimagwa who managed only 25.2% (155 votes) in the two-horse guild race.
During the online guild elections, students were allowed to vote using their phones, laptops, and tablets by logging into their personal accounts, go to the Virtual Elections module, and cast their votes virtually.
The total number of votes cast in the two-day elections was 616, despite the university projecting a total of over 2000 registered students on the University Virtual platform.
The 2022 Victoria University guild polls saw the institution conduct its first-ever online elections, an initiative that attracted attention from the public over its credibility, transparency, and integrity.
Kirabo will now take over from Serebe Denis, who has held the office of Guild Presidency since 2020 despite the expiry of his political term since the University could not hold the elections during the covid-19 lockdown.
In her inaugural speech, Kirabo promised to be more practical than theoretical and to work hand in hand with everyone at Victoria University to prioritize students’-based leadership.
Asked what she intends to start in her new 2022/23 guild term, Kirabo says as per her manifesto, she plans to set up a Guild Fund to help needy students who cannot afford tuition by rewarding them with percentage discounts on top of the now-available University Scholarship scheme.
Online Voting System
The University Academic Registrar Ms. Precious Aturinda who managed the voting process from start to finish said the VU Elections app said that the electronic voting system was designed to promote transparency and integrity and to promote democratic elections at the university.
“Students vote only once and when their vote is recorded, the voting button is automatically disabled. There is no room for vote-rigging or electoral malpractice in the system since only registered students can cast their votes,’’ she communicated.
“There’s no room for instances of vote-rigging or electoral malpractice in this system since only registered students can cast their votes, and with their Unique IDs, one cannot vote twice, since the system automatically disables the election button a student’s ID once they submit their respective votes,” She added.
The Victoria University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Lawrence Muganga also described using of the electronic voting system as a great milestone.
“For the first time in history of higher education in this country, we have been able to use an electronic voting system and the contenders were able to count their votes in real-time. They were able to tell whether winning or losing in real-time,” Prof.Muganga said.
He added that other institutions can as well pick a leaf from Victoria University to organize their subsequent guild elections to ensure, credible, free and fair elections since the process is even affordable for it saves institutions resources, triggers increased student engagement in determining their leadership, and increases accessibility and participation in the election process.
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