Uganda’s West Nile has become one of several hotly contested regions in the country’s presidential campaign. As the five candidates, including President Yoweri Museveni, criss-cross the country, accusations have erupted of voter intimidation.
In a bid to woo West Nile voters, who traditionally favour opposition candidates, Museveni last week announced a new hydroelectric power plant on the Nile to serve the region. At the same time, Major Kakooza Mutale, a presidential adviser and leader of the Kalangala Action Plan militia, vowed that the main contender, Kizza Besigye, or Miria Obote, the candidate of the Uganda People’s Congress, would never rule Uganda.
Mutale advised the widow of the late Apollo Milton Obote to quit the campaign and settle down to life as widow of the former head of state.
In Arua, the region’s largest city, Taban Amin, son of former president Idi Amin, is being investigated for allegedly defacing posters of opposition presidential candidates. Amin is an officer with the Internal Security Organisation, the intelligence branch of the interior ministry.
The Democratic Party candidate, John Sebaana, abruptly postponed his campaign in West Nile for a second time, saying he feared clashes with Museveni’s supporters. A week earlier, the party claimed that armed men had been driving into villages in southern Uganda and threatening villagers who attended opposition rallies.
The former ethics and integrity minister, Miria Matembe, now standing as a candidate for one of several seats designated for women, said voters are being told that despite the secrecy of the ballot, Museveni’s National Resistance Movement can still find out how they voted. Matembe was removed from Museveni’s Cabinet after she refused to support his plans to stand for a third term.
Perhaps the strongest complaints have come from Besigye, who claims that paramilitary groups have been trained to intimidate supporters of his Forum for Democratic Change party. He accused government administrators and internal security agents of raiding his party offices and confiscating records and documents.
Besigye scoffed at efforts by the government to provide security at polling stations, saying that such officers could easily be used to manipulate the votes.
Intimidation may not be confined to voters, however.
Last week, the judge in Besigye’s treason trial resigned, becoming the third judge to leave the case.
Besigye said High Court Justice John Bosco Katutsi was pressured to withdraw from the case after senior military officials accused the court of being too soft on ”terrorists”.
Katutsi, however, said doctors had advised him to step down because his high blood pressure had been aggravated by the tension surrounding the case.
Earlier, General David Tinyefuza, a presidential security adviser, attacked the judiciary over a recent constitutional court ruling that Besigye could not be tried by the military in addition to the treason trial. Defence forces chief Lieutenant General Aronda Nyakairima also blasted the Constitutional Court for its ruling, saying it favoured extremists. — Institute for War and Peace Reporting