By The EastAfrican

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Election contenders stood at the front and voters queued behind their preferred candidate with a poll officer wagging his finger as he tallied.

This was the scene on Tuesday at polling stations across the country as Uganda marked the start of a new election cycle with the vote for the women leaders in village local councils.

The queuing system has not been used in Uganda in at least two decades and its re-introduction, the government says, is aimed at cutting costs of holding elections.

The local councils have different levels, the lowest being leaders of villages in the rural areas or zones in urban settings.

Other levels are parish (rural) or ward (urban), followed by sub-county/town, county/municipality and district.

In this election, Ugandan women were electing their village women councils consisting of chairpersons and their deputies, secretary-generals, publicity secretaries and secretaries for finance.

There will be elections too for councillors to represent special interest groups such as youth, people living with disabilities, and the elderly.

Despite a low turnout in many areas, the electoral commission spokesman Jotham Taremwa said a five-member Women Village Executive Council was elected in 60,800 villages.

However, the queue voting system was not without criticism.

Voters in different zones in Makindye Division in the capital Kampala disapproved of the system saying it creates divisions among the electorate and discourages people from voting freely.

Florence Nakitende, a candidate in Green Hill Zone in Kampala, said she felt betrayed after seeing that some of her friends queued behind her opponent. She got only 59 votes out of 175 votes.

“This method is bad, even if I have lost I can’t believe even my friends did not vote for me,” she said.

Some people have also expressed concerns about other local council elections in the country, noting that the queue system intimidates voters.

“This concept of lining up behind candidates will not work and since it has started failing at this level, it will be worse in election of village chairpersons,” said Geoffrey Magomu, a resident of Mbale district.

Juliet Namubiru, a candidate in the Mutuba Musisi Gardens Village in Masaka district, said she was surprised by the failure of voters to turnout yet they had persuaded her to contest.

“I don’t know what is going on,” she said, adding that those she called on her mobile phone had said they would turn up after work.

She attributed the poor turnout to the queue voting method.

-Reported by Charles M. Mpagi and Daily Monitor.