Displaced democracy: refugees, elections, and humanitarian management in northern Uganda

O'Byrne, Ryan Joseph (2025) Displaced democracy: refugees, elections, and humanitarian management in northern Uganda. In: Displaced urbanism. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9781003471134

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Abstract

Refugee camps, and those living within them, are generally poorly portrayed in public discourses. These portrayals are usually simplistic and one-dimensional, however, failing to account for systemic inequality as well as forgetting how refugees demand or show both formal and informal political action. By investigating the UN-backed election of refugee leadership in one small refugee settlement in northern Uganda in mid-2018, this chapter highlights the role which everyday, community-based authority, governance, and political action play within some refugees’ lives. It argues that, although both the process and the outcome of this election was important to the refugees involved, because it existed more for the purposes of streamlining camp management than for establishing refugee self-governance, it changed nothing about how power and authority within the settlement actually functioned. In other words, although the election as an event demonstrated many ideals of democratic governance, the reasons underlying the wider process were more about service provision than authority transfer. Thus, although these refugees now have elected representatives, the election was ultimately little more than an instrumentalised and utilitarian exercise in humanitarian efficiency.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	List of Figures and Titles Figure 1. LC and RWC structure in Adjumani District (taken from de Simone (2022: 35). Figure 2. Candidate lists on display at PRS reception, July 30, 2018. Photo by R.J. O'Byrne. Figure 3. Ideal map of polling station set up from PRS election guidelines. Photo by R.J. O'Byrne. Figure 4. Ballot boxes on display, Polling station at Zone One Block Two. Photo by Charles Ogeno. Figure 5. Polling station in Zone Four Block Five at end of day. Photo by R.J. O'Byrne. Figure 6. Electoral staff count votes in front of agents, Zone One Block Two. Photo by Charles Ogeno. Alt Text for Figures and Titles Figure 1. Three-tiered, two-column figure compares the similarities of the LC and RWC structures for each level in Adjumani District and notes their role and responsibilities. Figure 2. On a sunny day, two young men facing away from the camera read the candidate lists displayed behind a barbed wire fence at in advance of the 2018 election. Figure 3. A rectangular photocopy shows the ideal set up of polling station for the PRS election. It has a linear left to top to right flow from table, basin, and ballot box one through to table, basin, and ballot box three with exit area on the bottom edge. Figure 4. Three large, transparent plastic buckets with lids stating Block 1 through Block 3 stand behind a green plastic basin on a dry dirt background. Figure 5. A group of people line up from left to centre in the sun at a tarpaulin covered, wooden-framed polling station under which three people wearing hi-vis vests sit. A red Honda motorcycle is in the right foreground. Figure 6. A group of people with a variety of uniforms and clothing sit on a bench or plastic seats under the shade of a small tree while three people wearing hi-vis vests show them voting papers.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	South Sudan, Uganda, refugees, elections, democracy, humanitarianism, displacement, public authority
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DT Africa G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Divisions:	Institutes and Academies > Institute of Education and Humanities > Academic Discipline: Humanities and Social Sciences
Related URLs:	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003471134
Depositing User:	Ryan O'byrne
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2025 15:07
Last Modified:	02 Jun 2025 15:07
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/3732

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