Kampala, Uganda - Incumbent Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has succeeded in extending his rule from a quarter of a century to 30 years, after he was declared winner of Friday's presidential election Sunday. However, his seven opponents at the polls have rejected the result, saying the elections were flawed. Election observers have also accused Museveni of widespread abuse of incumbency to get an unfair advantage at the polls.

Museveni garnered 5,428,369 votes (68.38%) out of 7,938, 212 votes cast, beating Dr. Kizza Besigye, who polled 26 per cent of the vote, for the third time in a row.

The remaining six candidates failed to hit the two percent mark.

The Commonwealth Observer group cited the use of massive resources by the state, deployment of the military and other tactics which it said influenced the elections in favour of Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

“By all accounts, the elections were Uganda’s most expensive ever. It is therefore important that for the future, serious thought be given to election campaign financing and political party fund raising,” said Billie Miller, chairperson of the group.

“The magnitude of resources that were deployed by the ruling NRM, its huge level of funding and overwhelming advantage of incumbency, once again, challenged the notion of a level playing field in the entire process,” Miller added.

The group blasted what it called “commercialization of politics,” which it said gave the NRM undue advantage in a country where the party is synonymous with the state. It said the distribution of vast amounts of money and gifts are most disturbing.

The European Union (EU) observer group, in its preliminary report, agrees, noting: “The electoral process was marred by avoidable administrative and logistical failures which led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disenfranchised.

“Furthermore, the power of incumbency was exercised to such an extent as to compromise severely the level playing field between the competing candidates and political parties.

“The lack of trust by stakeholders in the fundamental building blocks of the electoral process, namely in the Electoral Commission itself and the National Voter Register, dominated debate at the expense of policy issues which would normally be at the centre.”

The EU further noted that the state broadcaster, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), failed to comply with its legal obligations to treat each presidential and parliamentary candidate equally, with its television channel giving the incumbent president and the ruling NRM party substantially more coverage than their nearest rivals.

“The government’s dominance of state-owned radio, the only broadcasting network covering almost all areas of the country, was not balanced by private radio stations established outside the capital, which generally provided opposition candidates with very limited access,” EU further observed.

It added: “Recent threats against the freedom of the press, coupled with limited critical reporting of the incumbents’ record in office, give rise to concern about the ability of media to exercise fully their fundamental right and freedom to report an election campaign and led to a breakdown of effective communication between the Electoral Commission and many of the stakeholders.”

The findings of the observers are likely to put a blot on the legitimacy of Museveni’s new and final five-year term.

They echo accusations levelled by Besigye, a former Museveni ally who said there was widespread rigging through voter bribery, intimidation by the military and stuffing of ballot boxes.

Voters were turned away in many centres as their names were missing, and many of the opposition agents were thrown out of voting centres.

“We therefore categorically reject the outcome of the elections. We reject the leadership of Mr Yoweri Museveni and any person or persons he may purport to appoint,” said Besigye.

The Inter-party Cooperation on whose ticket Besigye stood said it would consult other political actors before deciding how to confront Museveni.

Pana 21/02/2011