Uganda has launched the first phase of the 2026 general elections today not with youth rallies or fiery debates, but with an unexpected uprising: the election of village committees for older persons across more than 71,000 villages.
The exercise, part of what the Electoral Commission insists is a road map, is exclusively dedicated to citizens aged 60 and above — those who not only appear on the national voters register but also have endured at least one form of colonial currency, multiple coups, and the rise and fall of cassette tapes.
Julius Mucunguzi, spokesperson for the Electoral Commission, warned that today’s events may seem harmless, but they mark the beginning of a deeper revolution.
“These so-called special interest elections are more critical than we realized,” Mucunguzi admitted nervously. “Once you give the elderly organizational power at the village level, it’s only a matter of time before knitting circles turn into strategic planning committees.”
Each village committee for older persons consists of five key roles: Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Vice Secretary, and the all-powerful Treasurer, rumored to have control over both village petty cash and the hidden recipe for millet porridge.
Voting is being done via “lining up” — a system where voters physically queue behind their candidate or their designated portrait. The method, while simple, has led to early confusion in some villages where supporters accidentally formed lines behind scarecrows, ancestral portraits, and one very photogenic goat.
Polling takes place from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with civic education sessions before voting begins. These sessions reportedly include instructions on how to tell time without a smartphone and motivational talks about outliving three regimes.
“The lining-up will end at 2:00 PM,” Mucunguzi said. “From there, our officials will complete declaration forms — assuming they survive the barrage of ‘back in my day’ stories.”
He emphasized that the elections are grounded in the 1995 Constitution, which affirms Uganda’s commitment to affirmative action for historically marginalized groups — though critics argue that these elections may mark the dawn of a gerontocratic takeover.
“We call upon all older persons to participate fully and peacefully,” Mucunguzi added. “And to please leave their walking sticks outside the polling line — last year’s youth elections taught us what happens when they’re used as political weapons.”
The outcome of these elections will funnel upward to sub-county, district, and eventually national levels, culminating in the election of parliamentary representatives for special interest groups — or, as some youth have begun calling it, The Rise of the Elders.
