By John Stephen Katende

28^th Feb 2011

Britain’s Minister for Africa has welcomed what he called the “peaceful” manner in which the just concluded Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 18^th February were conducted.

In a statement, Mr. Henry Bellingham said, “…I welcome the largely peaceful conduct of Uganda’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections on 18^th February.  I welcome the preliminary statement of the EU Electoral Observation Mission and the interim statement of the Commonwealth Observer Group”.  Both reports, Mr. Bellingham said, “…highlight some improvements in the overall conduct and transparency of the elections”.

He however expressed concern over what he called “avoidable shortcomings” in the conduct of the elections.  In particular, Mr. Bellingham said, he endorses the election observers concerns about the manner in which Museveni exercised the powers and advantages of incumbency at the expense of his opponents.

For those reasons, he said, there was “…need for further progress to create a level playing field for elections”. He also urged all parties to continue to reject violence and to pursue any challenges to the results of the elections through peaceful constitutional means.

He also encouraged all those elected and all Uganda’s political stakeholders, including the government, political parties, and the Electoral Commission to reflect on the assessments of the independent election observers in order to address the shortcomings identified and thus strengthen pluralistic multi-party democracy in Uganda.

However, in detailed opinion article [see: Museveni’s 56% northern victory is ‘another rape’] that assessed how Museveni managed to get 56% of the vote in northern Uganda, Mr. John Dex Opira, a resident of Gulu in northern Uganda, seemed to paint a completely different picture of bribery, rigging, and intimidation in the conduct of the February 18^th elections.  For example, Mr. Opira said:

“…The army was involved from the very beginning of the campaigns.  Deep down in the villages, 4^th Division soldiers openly supported some candidates.  When the money came, the Division became the branch depot for the NRM candidates.

This practice, although illegal, was done openly with total impunity.  Illegal polling stations were setup and the opposition was powerless to do anything about it.  On the voting day, all soldiers and their wives were commanded to vote for the Commander-in-Chief.  Any defiant unit faced punishment for disobeying orders”.

As if that wasn’t enough, on the eve of voting day, army jet fighters were rolled to do formation flights over Gulu and other towns.  Heavily armed soldiers patrolled all corners of town.  Their facial expression seemed to suggest to voters that the NRM must win.  It was nothing short of psychological intimidation”.

Unlike the British Minister Henry Bellingham who endorsed the international election observers’ interim assessments, Mr. Opira, for his part, seemed to suggest that international election observers are often compromised by their own countries’ national interests.

Mr. Opira said, “…the international observers were also not keen on key issues.  There is therefore need to revisit their role to avoid biased reports based on their strategic national interest”.  END.  Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.