22 February 2011
Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi
AfricaNews reporter in Kampala, Uganda
Two hours before the results of the Feb. 18 Ugandan presidential election were declared, the main opposition candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye rejected the final outcome and vowed not to recognise the government President Yoweri Museveni would form on re-election. This followed accusations of rigging, bribery and poor organisation of the electoral process which the opposition says "subverted the will of the people of Uganda."
About a month to the general election, Parliament passed a supplementary budget of about $ 300 million, about $ 50 of which went to State House, the President’s official residence. This was the biggest supplementary budget in Uganda’s history and the supplementary budget for State House, the opposition say, was meant to bribe voters.
In the run-up to the election, the President’s son-in-law and his brother former bush war fighter Gen. Salim Saleh were accused of attempting to bribe opposition leaders at the local level in deals worth about $ 1 million each.
So widespread was the use of state resources in campaign-related work that Finance Minister Syda Bbumba admitted last month that “government is broke”. Work in ministries and other government departments stalled because their recurrent budgets were wiped out.
The opposition now say such an environment couldn’t have allowed for the expression of the will of Ugandans. One of the candidates, former UN undersecretary Dr. Olara Otunnu, went through the campaigns but skipped the voting and later told the press he couldn’t participate in a “fraud”.
Otunnu particularly spent the entire three-month campaign vilifying the Electoral Commission and calling for its removal. Opposition candidates agree that the current Commission, appointed by the President and liable to dismissal at his pleasure, cannot organise free and fair elections in a multi-party setting. They called for its reconstitution to give rise to one to which the various political players nominate members to no avail.
The Commission has come under fresh attack especially over the voters roll and late commencement of polling especially in places where the opposition enjoys sizeable support.
In some parts of Kampala, the capital, voting started at 11 am yet it was supposed to commence at 7 am due to late delivery of election materials. Throngs of voters were turned away since their names were missing on the register while others had to move back-and-forth trying to locate the polling stations where they were supposed to cast their ballots.
The opposition say this was calculated to frustrate their supporters and advantage the incumbent. The opposition coalition that fronted Besigye, the Interparty Cooperation, says it sampled 80 districts and found that there was unacceptable disenfranchisement of voters in 61 districts.
In 66 out of the 80 districts sampled, claimed the IPC, their polling agents were denied results declaration forms, which is their right, while in 34 out of the 80 districts the IPC’s polling agents were allegedly arrested, detained or turned away from polling stations.
Another irregularity the opposition cite is ballot-box stuffing. Besigye presented to the press copies of ballots pre-ticked in Museveni’s favour which he said were stuffed in the ballot boxes across the country.
Asked to comment about the pre-ticked ballots in Besigye’s possession shortly after declaring the final results, the Electoral Commission chairman Dr. Badru Kiggundu called on police to arrest Besigye to explain where he got the ballots from. Besigye says he got them from one of his agents who was mistaken to be Museveni’s supporter and was given the ballots for stuffing.
The military and police heavily deployed in the capital and other areas partly in anticipation of election-related violence, but the move was also criticised as calculated to abet rigging. In the eastern Uganda district of Sironko, a journalist who was travelling with Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi was shot in the ribs on Election Day as chaos erupted between Mafabi’s camp and the soldiers guarding his rival, Minister in charge of the Presidency Beatrice Wabudeya.
The soldiers were accused of attempting to rig out Mafabi, who eventually beat the minister. The presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda take place simultaneously.
Museveni, declared winner on Feb. 20 with 68 percent, beat seven challengers. Besigye, his closest challenger, polled 26 percent of the vote while the rest polled less than 3 percent apiece. Notably, about 4 percent of the votes cast were invalid.
Museveni’s win earns him another five years that would extend his rule to 30 years. He shot to power in 1986 following a five-year bush war that claimed at least 300,000 lives. The war was sparked off by the botched 1980 general elections, which former president Milton Obote is believed to have rigged.
Now the opposition, led by Besigye, says Museveni has over the past four elections surpassed Obote’s limits. The opposition have been ambiguous on how to proceed, but security is not leaving anything to chance. They fear Ugandans would erupt into a Tunisia/Egypt scenario.
In the run-up to the election, the President’s son-in-law and his brother former bush war fighter Gen. Salim Saleh were accused of attempting to bribe opposition leaders at the local level in deals worth about $ 1 million each.
So widespread was the use of state resources in campaign-related work that Finance Minister Syda Bbumba admitted last month that “government is broke”. Work in ministries and other government departments stalled because their recurrent budgets were wiped out.
The opposition now say such an environment couldn’t have allowed for the expression of the will of Ugandans. One of the candidates, former UN undersecretary Dr. Olara Otunnu, went through the campaigns but skipped the voting and later told the press he couldn’t participate in a “fraud”.
Otunnu particularly spent the entire three-month campaign vilifying the Electoral Commission and calling for its removal. Opposition candidates agree that the current Commission, appointed by the President and liable to dismissal at his pleasure, cannot organise free and fair elections in a multi-party setting. They called for its reconstitution to give rise to one to which the various political players nominate members to no avail.
The Commission has come under fresh attack especially over the voters roll and late commencement of polling especially in places where the opposition enjoys sizeable support.
In some parts of Kampala, the capital, voting started at 11 am yet it was supposed to commence at 7 am due to late delivery of election materials. Throngs of voters were turned away since their names were missing on the register while others had to move back-and-forth trying to locate the polling stations where they were supposed to cast their ballots.
The opposition say this was calculated to frustrate their supporters and advantage the incumbent. The opposition coalition that fronted Besigye, the Interparty Cooperation, says it sampled 80 districts and found that there was unacceptable disenfranchisement of voters in 61 districts.
In 66 out of the 80 districts sampled, claimed the IPC, their polling agents were denied results declaration forms, which is their right, while in 34 out of the 80 districts the IPC’s polling agents were allegedly arrested, detained or turned away from polling stations.
Another irregularity the opposition cite is ballot-box stuffing. Besigye presented to the press copies of ballots pre-ticked in Museveni’s favour which he said were stuffed in the ballot boxes across the country.
Asked to comment about the pre-ticked ballots in Besigye’s possession shortly after declaring the final results, the Electoral Commission chairman Dr. Badru Kiggundu called on police to arrest Besigye to explain where he got the ballots from. Besigye says he got them from one of his agents who was mistaken to be Museveni’s supporter and was given the ballots for stuffing.
The military and police heavily deployed in the capital and other areas partly in anticipation of election-related violence, but the move was also criticised as calculated to abet rigging. In the eastern Uganda district of Sironko, a journalist who was travelling with Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi was shot in the ribs on Election Day as chaos erupted between Mafabi’s camp and the soldiers guarding his rival, Minister in charge of the Presidency Beatrice Wabudeya.
The soldiers were accused of attempting to rig out Mafabi, who eventually beat the minister. The presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda take place simultaneously.
Museveni, declared winner on Feb. 20 with 68 percent, beat seven challengers. Besigye, his closest challenger, polled 26 percent of the vote while the rest polled less than 3 percent apiece. Notably, about 4 percent of the votes cast were invalid.
Museveni’s win earns him another five years that would extend his rule to 30 years. He shot to power in 1986 following a five-year bush war that claimed at least 300,000 lives. The war was sparked off by the botched 1980 general elections, which former president Milton Obote is believed to have rigged.
Now the opposition, led by Besigye, says Museveni has over the past four elections surpassed Obote’s limits. The opposition have been ambiguous on how to proceed, but security is not leaving anything to chance. They fear Ugandans would erupt into a Tunisia/Egypt scenario.
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