“Such a day is highly undermined by the lack of free and fair elections”, opposition candidate Kizza Besigye said as he voted in the village of Rukungiri in western Uganda. One person died and 19 were wounded as police fired bullets and tear gas, while Besigye supporters responded by hurling rocks.
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On the eve of the vote, Besigye told Reuters Museveni was “not going to go peacefully” and said his supporters may stage street protests to dispute the election outcome.
Voting was supposed to be limited to between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. but the Electoral Commission (EC) announced late in the day that they would extend voting until 7 p.m. for stations where materials arrived late. They came here with a box full of ballot papers but the box was open and the ballot papers which was inside they were for only MPs, there’s no for presidents. “But where it is not a free and fair election then we must fight for free and fair elections because that is the essence of our citizenship”.
In Kampala, the spokesman for the FDC said the delays were a “deliberate attempt to frustrate” voters in urban areas, especially Kampala and the neighbouring district of Wakiso.
Opinion polls before the election showed Museveni with a comfortable lead, although opposition figures have questioned the polls’ reliability.
He said he had “very reliable information, corroborated information that there was a house in a suburb of the city… where the operation of rigging the elections is centred”.
Al Jazeera reports on the arrest.
Many young Ugandans own smart phones and use online apps such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis.
Virginia lawmakers are considering whether to keep the names of police officers secret from the news media and public.
Besigye, 59, served as Museveni’s personal physician in the bush war and when the rebels came to power he became a minister in Museveni’s cabinet and a colonel in the army.
But many voters among Uganda’s youthful population say they want change and blame Museveni for not tackling endemic corruption or creating enough jobs. “Delays of three, four, five and even six hours, especially in Kampala, are absolutely inexcusable and will not inspire trust and confidence in the system and the process”, Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the Commonwealth Observer Group in Uganda, told AFP.
“That must be steps taken for security to stop so many social media users from getting in trouble; it’s temporary, it will go away because some people misuse those pathways for telling lies”, local media quoted Museveni as saying.
“Without clearly defined security concerns, this closure is nothing but an exercise in censorship as Ugandans elect their leaders”, said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director.
While this is a competitive election, Museveni has a strong advantage as the incumbent, including favorable media coverage and support from security forces.
The commission said Museveni had 62 per cent of the vote after votes were counted at 37 per cent of polling stations. More than 15 million people were registered to vote, with members of parliament also up for election as well as the president.
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People from the Karamojong tribe wait in line to vote at a polling station in a village near the town of Kaabong in Uganda’s Karamoja region.
