KAMPALA, Sunday
Uganda’s elections were tainted by the lack of a level playing field during the campaign and several irregularities on voting day, observers from the Commonwealth said today.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country for 25 years, looked assured of another five-year term following Friday’s elections, according to partial results.
In an interim statement, Commonwealth observer group chair Billie Miller said that “the main concern regarding the campaign and indeed the overall character of the election was the lack of a level playing field.”
She deplored “the use of money and the abuse of incumbency” by Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement during the electoral process.
Ms Miller also reported irregularities on election day and after, including “widespread late delivery of materials and the late opening of many polling stations; inconsistent application of procedures by polling officials.”
“In some areas the nature of the presence of security forces was a concern,” she told reporters in Kampala.
“This statement reflects improvements which were welcome and encouraging. However there remain shortcomings which need to be addressed,” she concluded.
Ms Miller stressed that many of the problems reported in the aftermath of the 2006 elections remained.
Uganda, a former British colony, is a member of the Commonwealth and hosted its heads of government meeting in 2007.
And as the tallying of votes at Namboole draws to a close, Candidate Museveni is poised to take the presidency for the fourth term. He is leading the pack with 68.28%.
The 10th preliminary results announced by the Electoral Commission’s boss Badru Kiggudu show that from the 8,128,098 votes cast, President Museveni has 5,324,878 votes putting him ahead of his main rival and Inter Party Coalitions Presidential candidate Kizza Besigye who has 2,036,965 [26.12%].
Nobert Mao is so far the third with 147133 [1.89%] followed by UPC’s Olara Otunnu with 1201184[1.54%], and Betty Kamya with 52022 [0.67%].
Abed Bwanika stands at second last with 50998 [0.65%] and Independent Samuel Lubega is last with 32374 votes [0.42]
According to the Electoral Commission, 81 districts have so far submitted all the results and 31districts have partial results. There are 550 polling stations whose results have not yet been submitted.
“We are in the final tracking of the results to make sure we complete the process before announcing the winner “says Kiggundu.
The Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC), whose flag bearer in the presidential election is Dr Kizza Besigye, will hold a press briefing at the IPC office in Mengo at 2pm. According to IPC Spokesperson, Margaret Wokuri, the IPC leadership will use the press briefing to give its final position about the concluded electoral process.
