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UGANDA: OPPOSITION PROTESTS AGAINST OUTCOME OF PRESIDENTIAL POLLS CLAIMING ELECTION FRAUD February 26, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) Uganda’s presidential elections which took place on Thursday 23rd , has left the country in turmoil after its opposition leader refused to accept the result of the country's general election which returned autocratic President Yoweri Museveni to power, claiming that fraud and intimidation hindered the poll. –The Observer reported Sunday.
Mr. Museveni who is the incumbent scored 59 per cent while his close challenger, Dr.! Kiiza Besigye scored 37 per cent of votes cast.
Dr. Besigye and his supporters rejected the official results of the poll. Mean while violence flared between his supporters and security forces in the capital, Kampala on Satuurday.
Against the electoral commission rules, the campaign and ballot ! had been blighted by government interference, spurious criminal charges laid against Dr. Besigye and problems with voter registration.
According to European Union and independent Ugandan observers, the irregularities which characterized the just concluded elections nullifies the whole process as a fair and free contest.
Dr. Besigye said he would not accept the official outcome of the poll - Uganda's first multi-party elections in 25 years - because of 'widespread irregularities'.
Mean while, Dr. Besigye’s agents' tallies at polling stations showed he had won 49 per cent of the votes to Museveni's 47 per cent, he said.
The campaign 'was marked by gross unfairness occasioned by the state which we did not consider to be an environment conducive to the free and fair expression of the Ugandan electorate', said Besigye.
'It is disgraceful that the government has chosen to abuse power and terrorize its opponents.' Claimed Besigye. Mr. Museveni, who has been in power for! more than 20 years, was declared the winner by Uganda's Electoral Commission yesterday afternoon.
The European Union's chief observer, Mr. Max van den Berg, said Dr. Besigye's campaign was hampered by numerous court appearances for rape and other charges which had been trumped up in order to damage him politically. The EU also said there was no level playing field in the elections due to the stranglehold Museveni still had on the country's media.
The FDC has cited a number of irregularities, including allegations that soldiers were deployed near voting booths to intimidate opposition supporters. The party also claimed its supporters were removed from electoral lists.