OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Tuesday
THE vote count in Uganda’s presidential election is being overshadowed by allegations that supporters of President Yoweri Museveni stuffed ballot boxes and, with the help of armed men, sent away opposition supporters.
Monday’s elections, seen as the greatest challenge yet to Museveni, were also hit by a threat by the main opposition candidate Kizza Besigye to not recognise results from a southwestern constituency.
Besigye, who was Museveni’s doctor during his rebel bush war years and a longtime political ally and senior government and military figure until announcing his candidacy late last year, is the only one of five challengers to present a real threat to the president.
Besigye has managed to woo both disillusioned supporters of Museveni’s no-party Movement system of governance and those in favour of a return to multi-party democracy.
But his camp have alleged their vigourous campaigning was responded to on polling day by widespread fraud.
“They came and ordered the presiding officer to tick all the ballot papers (in favour of Museveni) and slot them in the ballot box,” said Ben Kanyankole, 40, speaking in the home district Besigye.
“People are just sitting there ticking ballot papers,” said one Besigye official, warning the results in that area would not be accepted.
Other voters complained of being forced to tick ballots at the presiding officer’s table and not at a designated table set a regulation 15m away and that a plastic bowl provided for the sake of secrecy had been removed.
Officials and Ugandan election observers at polling stations visited denied any wrongdoing.
Museveni himself predicted a first round victory, for which he would need more than 50% of the vote. Besigye also claims to have the greater support base.
Some 10.6 million people were registered to vote, according to the electoral commission. The figure has generated considerable controversy because official statistics suggest that more than half of Uganda’s 22 million inhabitants are under voting age. – AFP
ZA*NOW:
Ugandans vote in keenly contested poll March 13, 2001