Museveni declared winner Besigye rejects results
By Timothy Nsubuga
21st Feb 2011
It’s official! President Yoweri Museveni has been officially declared winner of the 2011 presidential elections. The Electoral Commission Chairman Badru Kiggundu announced the results on Sunday 20th February and gave Museveni 68.38% of the vote, Dr. Besigye was given 26% and Norbert Mao was given 147, 708 votes. The rest were shared by the remaining five presidential candidates.
The IPC flag bearer Dr. Besigye however rejected the results immediately saying the elections were neither free nor fair and that the results had been “pre-fixed and pre-determined”. The FDC leader added that the manner in which the rigging was done was “obscene” and characterised by “open use of money to corrupt the whole process”.
The unprecedented bribery, Besigye said, “subverted the will of people”. He also added that IPC agents reported “…multiple voting and ballot stuffing resulting from use of bloated voters registers and that many voters were turned away without voting”.
The IPC’s claims also appear to be corroborated by some observers. In their interim report, the Commonwealth Observer Team said, “…some serious concerns remain which mirror findings highlighted after the 2006 elections”. They noted that the lack of “a level playing field” and the “commercialisation of politics”; both of which, the said, will need to be addressed.
The IPC also cried foul over the appointment of Movement cadres in the Electoral Commission who they say are biased in favour of the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni. The Commonwealth Observer Team also appeared to agree with the IPC on this one in its report in which it said, “…the ruling party in Uganda is by far the largest and best-resourced party and following many years in power and elements of the State structure are synonymous with the party”.
Dr. Besigye displayed some ballot papers before the media which he said had been pre-ticked in favour of Museveni. He said the pre-ticked ballots were found in at least 28 of the 80 polling stations IPC sampled to gather evidence. EC Chairman Badru Kiggundu however dismissed the IPC’s claims and instead urged the security services to “take on” Besigye for showing pre-ticked ballot papers.
