Uganda - Election 2011
The elections in 2006 were much better because there was widespread belief that this was the last term for the President and therefore there was an air of political expectation and optimism. For his part, the President also believed that the people did not want to return him and therefore tried very hard to be politically believable and persuasive. The 2011 elections, on the other hand, were seen as entirely driven by money, further distorting an already uneven playing field. While the 2011 elections had been largely free of the type of violence experienced in 2006, this may have also had as much to do with maturing politics as with the level of military presence that may have kept voters away as well as the significant increase in the amount of money used to bribe voters.
On 02 October 2009, local newspapers prominently published a statement by international donors on the importance of free, fair and peaceful elections in Uganda in 2011. The statement was drafted by the British High Commission on behalf of the Partners for Democracy and Governance Group, the Chief of Mission-level donor coordination body in Uganda. As a key member of the PDG, the U.S Mission cleared and provided input for the letter and the United States was listed as a PDG member when the letter was published in the press. The statement stresses the importance of freedom of expression, an impartial Electoral Commission, meaningful electoral reform, and constructive dialogue in advance of 2011.
The statement from the Partners for Democracy and Governance Group (PDG) represents an attempt to articulate the growing concerns of donors, echoed by Ugandans themselves, about the country's political readiness for landmark Presidential, Parliamentary and local-level elections in early 2011. The PDG comprises Ambassadors and Chiefs of Mission from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the U.K., the U.S., the European Commission, and the U.N. The U.S. Mission and all other PDG members cleared on the text, which was drafted by the British High Commissioner, the current PDG Chair. Uganda's two largest daily newspapers, the New Vision and the Daily Monitor, both carried the full text on October 2. The New Vision ran a front page article on the letter, under the banner headline "Diplomats Speak Out On 2011 Polls."
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president Kizza Besigye, who won 37% percent of the vote in the 2006 presidential election, was President Museveni's most formidable challenger for 2011. Besigye said "running battles" with the Ugandan security services and local government officials are preventing the FDC from conducting business, holding meetings, and addressing the public as allowed under the law. Like many other opposition figures and journalists critical of the Museveni regime, Besigye's passport rests with government authorities pending resolution of permanently stalled treason charges.
Describing himself as a "prisoner" on "temporary parole" since he was charged with treason in 2005, Besigye is required to provide invitation letters, travel dates, itineraries, and reasons for travel to authorities each time he applies to recover his passport for travel abroad. Besigye said the opaque and intrusive application process can take three days to three weeks and frequently forces him to cancel international engagements. Besigye suspects local authorities of deliberately scheduling application hearings to conflict with his proposed travel dates. The Minister of Internal Affairs Kirunda Kivejinja and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) continued to rely on a provision of the Police Act, already declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, to force opposition parties to obtain written IGP approval for any meetings involving 25 people or more.
Besigye said FDC leaders are also unable to appear on FM radio stations outside of Kampala. Uganda has more than 150 mostly privately owned FM radio stations. Besigye said the FDC is generally able to obtain air time in Kampala but has been blacklisted from radio stations outside the capital, which Besigye said are generally owned by government officials or ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) members. Besigye said radio stations in Karamoja and Fort Portal barred him from appearing on air even though the FDC had already paid for the airtime.
The FDC leader said the Ugandan government is preventing him from fundraising. He said government intimidation and harassment prevents FDC members from purchasing party membership cards or openly affiliating themselves with an opposition party. Private individuals and companies, meanwhile, refrain from writing checks to either the FDC or Kizza Besigye for fear of government reprisals.
Besigye continued to crisscross Uganda looking for votes. His appeal to voters was based on the general question of whether everyday Ugandans feel their lives are getting better or worse. In his stump speeches, Besigye blames increasing poverty, rising corruption, deteriorating infrastructure, continued lack of electricity, poor schools, and lack of government services on President Museveni and NRM mismanagement, and presents himself as the candidate of change. Besigye proposed drastically reducing the size of the Ugandan government, by eliminating Resident District Commissioners and other administrative structures closely tied to President Museveni's "resistance movement" ideology, and clamping down on rampant corruption. Besigye said this will free up additional funding for critical yet neglected social services like health and education.
Questions of independence and organization weakened the Electoral Commission's (EC) credibility and effectiveness. Article 60(1) of the Ugandan Constitution invests the President with the power to appoint the Commission's seven Commissioners, pending Parliamentary approval. Article 62 states that the Commission "shall be independent and shall, in the performance of its functions, not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority." President Museveni re-appointed six of the EC's seven Commissioners to new seven year terms in August 2009. Museveni replaced the EC's one retiring Commissioner with a previously unknown rural schoolteacher. In a hastily arranged hearing on August 12, parliamentarians ratified Museveni's appointments. Opposition leaders complained that the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), which controls more than two-thirds of Parliament, withheld information on the appointments until the last moment to deliberately frustrate the opposition's ability to review Commissioners' qualifications.
Opposition parties belonging to the Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC) coalition expressed no confidence in the Commission, based in large part on the Commission's management of the flawed 2006 elections, and were demanding new Commissioners. However, in accordance with the Constitution, only the President can replace Commission members. In 2009, opposition parties initiated two court cases challenging the competency and qualifications of the Commissioners and the Commission's Secretary. The EC's opaque budget, botched procurements, and unclear priorities further undermined its credibility.
The 25 January 2010 by-election in Budiope sub-county to replace a recently deceased Member of Parliament highlighted concerns with the Electoral Commission's management of the voter registry and the tabulation of results at polling stations. Voter registries sold by the Commission to the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party on January 21 differed from the official registries delivered to Budiope poll workers on election day. Citing a discrepancy of approximately 2,800 names, the FDC accused the Electoral Commission of deliberately deleting FDC supporters from the registry. However, the last minute deletions appeared to be a function of the Electoral Commission's own disorganization and not an attempt to disenfranchise specific voters or parties. On Februrary 9, the FDC called on the Electoral Commission to post the voter registry on line to ensure equal and transparent access for all stakeholders.
The Ugandan Constitution and 2005 Parliamentary Elections Act require presiding officers at polling stations to "announce" results at polling stations before assembled poll workers, political party agents, and observers. Presiding officers are not required to post results. There were no reports of failures to announce results at polling stations in Budiope. The Electoral Commission voided results from one polling station due to fraud and ballot stuffing. Three individuals were arrested, charged with electoral malpractice, and released on bail. The official participation rate in Budiope was 51% - which is high for a relatively low profile by-election. Remarkably, almost 20% of polling stations in Budiope reported participation rates of 88% or higher, with several stations reporting participation rates of 99 to 100%. Observers received reports of collusion between some poll workers and party agents, and recorded one attempt to bribe a local observer. Seemingly inflated participation rates, coupled with scattered reports of electoral malfeasance, suggest fraud. Since the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate in Budiope won with 75% of votes cast, these irregularities likely did not affect the overall outcome but would have impacted a closer and more contested election.
Authorities continued to limit opposition parties' and leaders' freedom of assembly and movement. Police and government officials used provisions of the Police Act, which require opposition parties to inform the Inspector General of the Police of any assembly involving 25 persons or more (and were previously declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court), to disrupt opposition events and rallies. On 31 December 2009, the IPC informed the Inspector General of Police it would conduct a "series of civil action activities" from January 4 onward to protest government repression of the media, the composition of the Electoral Commission, and government closure of the Buganda Kingdom's Central Broadcasting Station (CBS) radio station. The IPC informed police that these activities, including a march through Kampala to Parliament, "shall be peaceful and within the confines of the law." On January 3, police deployed heavily throughout Kampala, and on January 4 police in riot gear temporarily prevented opposition leaders from entering IPC offices. The Inspector General of Police said opposition parties failed to notify police in a timely manner and that opposition tactics were intended to cause "confusion" and "disorder" in Kampala. No civil action activities occurred.
Authorities impeded the movements of opposition leaders. On 28 January 2010, police in Kagadi near Lake Albert prevented UPC presidential aspirant Olara Otunnu from visiting a local hospital and other locations. Police claimed Otunnu failed to inform authorities of his itinerary in a timely manner. Otunnu accused police of blocking his movements to prevent him from highlighting the poor quality of Kagadi's public hospital. In January, administrative and legal delays forced FDC president Kizza Besigye to postpone travel to the U.S. pending the return of his passport, which was confiscated by authorities in 2005 following Besigye's indictment on treason and rape charges. Uganda's High Court dismissed the rape allegations in March 2006.
Freedom of the media continued to deteriorate. On January 6, the Ugandan Human Rights Network for Journalists (HRNJ) declared 2009 "the worst year" for Ugandan journalists since press restrictions were lifted in the early 1990s. According to HRNJ, 18 journalists were fired in 2009 due to government pressure and more than 80 were deprived of their rights. In January, police repeatedly questioned two Daily Monitor journalists - Angelo Izama and Henry Ochieng - for a December 20 article reporting on the NRM's civilian paramilitary training program, known locally as "mchaka-mchaka". On February 3, authorities charged Izama and Ochieng with criminal libel for a December 19 article, also on the mchaka-mchaka, which briefly compared President Museveni to former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Another Monitor journalist received threatening telephone calls related to a January 3 story on corruption in Uganda's nascent oil sector, and the Monitor's Managing Editor Daniel Kalinaki noted in a January 21 editorial that "close to 100 journalists in Uganda today face some form of charge or sanction by the government." On February 8, Kalinaki and Ochieng appeared in court to respond to forgery charges stemming from their publication of a letter from President Museveni to local leaders in western Uganda in August 2009 (ref. I). The government alleges that Kalinaki and Ocheing altered the text of the letter, a charge the Monitor journalists have denied. The court extended their bail and adjourned the hearing until March 29.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
