As the campaigns for the 2006 presidential elections kick off, it is time for the voters to watch out for empty promises from the politicians, and to focus on the issues.

In the two months ahead of the February 23 elections, the six presidential candidates will try to outdo each other promising paradise in Uganda for the next five years.

While it is every voter's civic duty to stay tuned in during the campaigns, it is equally important to scrutinise and weigh the promises coming from the political class.

So far the good news is that almost all the candidate and party manifestos highlight some of the major problems on the public agenda - poverty, political instability, the challenge of governance and public accountability, armed conflict (particularly the continuing war in the north), and so on.

It appears there is broad agreement on the condition of our country ahead of the first multi-party elections in 25 years.

However, there is little agreement on the solutions to the major problems facing the country. That is how it should be, for it is only through competition of ideas that voters can make meaningful decisions about the choices before them.

While the monetisation of politics and violence have undermined past elections by making the real voter choices almost inconsequential, we hope that next year's poll can be decided on the issues.

For this to happen, voters have to be informed about the choices before them, and to pay attention to the debates.

As Daily Monitor we shall do our best to interrogate the promises and policy platforms of the different candidates and parties.

Our reporters and editors shall crosscheck and verify the facts in candidate pronouncements so that our reporting is not superficial.

They will also analyse the candidates' policy proposals and explain them in terms readers would understand. How would these plans work? Who would stand to benefit? Who would stand to lose?

What informs the candidates' policy stands on different issues? Have they been consistent or are they simply pandering to voters?

These are some of the questions that we shall be asking as we report on the elections.

But the media alone cannot do the job.

The political parties, civil society, and government institutions, including the Electoral Commission, have got to the rise up to the occasion.