The recommendations were made by the
East African Community Observer Mission (EAC-OM) in Uganda led by former
president Ali Hassan Mwinyi.
The polls were, however, rejected as
fraudulent by Museveni’s closest rival Mr Kizza Besigye, who was under
house arrest. Museveni (71) won 60 per cent of the vote in the sometimes
chaotic elections, far ahead of the 35 per cent garnered by
detained
opposition leader, whose house was surrounded by dozens of armed police
in riot gear.
“The commission declares Yoweri Kaguta
Museveni the elected President of the Republic of Uganda,” Election
Commission chief Badru Kiggundu said as he read out results. NRM
spokesman Mike Sebalu said.
“Behind their vague claims of change,
there were no policies and no chance of progress -- and people saw
through these empty claims.”
In a statement issued in Kampala
yesterday, Mwinyi said: “It is important to note that the electoral
system for presidential contest does not provide for term limits.”
Alhaj Mwinyi also urged Uganda to
consider introduction of a legal framework to regulate campaign
financing to promote an equal playing field for all parties and
candidates.
“The absence of a legal requirement for
disclosure of campaign income and expenditure makes accountability
difficult and promotes negative influence of money in election
competition,” he noted.
It was also observed that youth groups
allied to parties remained an issue of security concern; therefore legal
mechanisms for controlling negative use of youth in the electoral
process should be explored.
The EAC-EOM appreciates that the February 2016 General Elections was one of the most competitive in the history of Uganda.
He commended the people of Uganda for
turning out in large numbers and peacefully participating in the
electoral process and encouraged all stakeholders to pursue
constitutional and legal reforms in order to improve the electoral
process in the country.
As the electoral process is still
on-going, the EAC-EOM shall make final announcement at the end of the
process. “I encourage the people of Uganda to remain calm and peaceful
during the remaining time,” he said.
Museveni once said leaders who
“overstayed” in power were the root of Africa’s problems, but 30 years
later has been elected for a fifth term.
The veteran former rebel leader seized power in 1986, ending years of brutal and murderous rule under Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
“Those who say, ‘let him go, let him
go’, they need to know that this is not the right time,” Museveni said
before the elections. “This old man who has saved the country, how do
you want him to go?
How can I go out of a banana plantation I
have planted that has started bearing fruits?” Museveni successfully
changed the constitution in 2005 abolishing a two-term limit.
Other African leaders have since
followed suit, changing or redefining laws to stay in power. Museveni is
officially 71, although activists have previously accused him of lying
about his age to circumvent the country’s laws imposing an age limit of
75 on presidential candidates.
This will therefore be his last term in
power, unless another change is made. But Museveni has made clear he has
no intention of handing power to anybody, dismissing criticism from
Western donors over graft and moves to grant sweeping powers to regulate
civil society groups and non-governmental organisations. He has also
shrugged off criticism of a tough anti-homosexuality law, later
overturned on a technicality.
Now entering his fourth decade in power,
Museveni remains one of Africa’s most wily and tenacious rulers. He
studied in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the 1960s when the university
acted as a kind of revolutionary finishing school for anti-colonialists.
His wife Janet is a devout Christian, MP and cabinet minister.
The promise of oil wealth from crude
discovered beneath Lake Albert has yet to be realised. Museveni has
welded state and party and underminedpolitical opposition so effectively
that any serious challenge to either him or his NRM is impossible.
A proud former military man, much of his
authority still rests on his sway over the army which he uses to
maintain control domestically and project power regionally.
During Democratic Republic of Congo’s
regional war between 1998-2003, Ugandan soldiers fought with their
Rwandan allies. More recently Ugandan troops were instrumental in
preventing a rebel takeover of the South Sudan capital, Juba, and
shoring up Salva Kiir’s government after civil war began in late 2013.
Uganda’s intervention in Somalia has
been more warmly welcomed with its troops forming the backbone of an
African Union mission that has battled the Al Qaeda-linked militants of
Shebab since 2007.
The Somalia intervention -- unlike those
in Congo and South Sudan -- has won Museveni favour with foreign donors
who in return give him a pass when it comes to domestic oppression and
corruption.
“His actions may not always be approved,
but he has made Uganda a serious player in the region,” said Magnus
Taylor, from the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.
“While Uganda’s drift towards
authoritarianism, coupled with the high-profile introduction of
legislation to criminalise homosexuality and regulate the operational
environment for NGOs may not win approval from Western actors, Museveni
has embedded himself to the extent that the international community
accepts his military contributions with one hand whilst wagging a
censorious finger with the other,” Taylor said. Museveni, born in
Rwakitura in western Uganda to a cattle-herding family, has always said
he looks forward to retiring to be a cattle keeper.
He specialises in rambling speeches
peppered with folksy parables and military references that play better
among poor -- and poorly-educated -- rural folk than among the urban
population where the opposition finds its strongest support.
But Uganda remains a predominantly rural country, in both demography and economy, and Museveni’s popularity there is still high.
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