Elections are often a season of uncertainty, misinformation, and propaganda.
While they are the bedrock of democratic governance, they also present opportunities for fraud and manipulation with far-reaching consequences. The rise of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), has significantly transformed electoral processes worldwide, offering both solutions and new challenges.
As Uganda approaches the 2026 elections, the role of AI is becoming a pressing concern. While AI has the potential to enhance transparency, efficiency, and security in elections, it can also be exploited to manipulate outcomes, spread misinformation, and compromise electoral integrity.
AI in elections: the global perspective
AI has already demonstrated its impact on the electoral processes across the world. In 2020, Telangana, India, successfully piloted facial recognition technology in municipal elections to prevent voter impersonation, enhancing voter verification and registration efficiency.
Similarly, Estonia has integrated AI into its e-voting system to ensure secure, tamper-proof voting. The technology is used to analyze voting patterns and flag suspicious activities, such as abnormal voter turnout or potential tampering.
Beyond voter verification, AI can process vast amounts of electoral data to identify trends, detect irregularities in voting behaviour, and monitor campaign activities. It can also track elections in real-time, analyzing social media and news reports for potential indicators of electoral malpractice.
AI is increasingly being used to reduce human interference and inefficiency, facilitating electoral oversight and accelerating decision-making.
The dark side of AI in elections
While AI holds immense promise, it also presents significant risks, particularly in the Ugandan context. The spread of misinformation through AI-generated deepfakes is a growing concern.
Social media platforms especially X (formerly Twitter), which is widely used in Uganda, could become a battleground for AI-generated falsehoods. A deepfake of a candidate making a controversial statement could incite violence, riots, and looting, endangering public safety and leading to mass human rights violations.
Political actors can also exploit generative AI to impersonate election officials or manipulate results, increasing the risk of election rigging. AI-driven voter behaviour predictions, based on unrestricted access to voter data, threaten privacy rights and could intensify biometric surveillance.
A breach of Uganda’s voter database could not only violate personal privacy but also pose serious cyber security risks if sensitive information is hacked or leaked. AI is only as good as the data it is trained on.
In the wrong hands, it could be weaponized to infiltrate electoral systems, introduce biases, and spread misinformation—further deepening divisions and eroding trust in the democratic process.
The need for regulation
To mitigate these risks, Uganda must establish a robust regulatory framework for AI in elections. Regulations should ensure that AI is not manipulated to undermine electoral integrity, spread false information, or weaken democracy.
There must be safeguards against AI-driven disinformation, strict cybersecurity measures to protect voter data, and accountability mechanisms to prevent political actors from exploiting AI for electoral gains.
The role of AI in Uganda’s 2026 elections cannot be ignored. While it presents opportunities to improve efficiency and transparency, its risks must be carefully managed.
The challenge lies in ensuring that AI strengthens democracy rather than subverting it. How Uganda navigates this technological frontier will be critical in determining the credibility of its electoral process.