Uganda - Election 2016
Uganda is a constitutional republic led since 1986 by President Yoweri Museveni of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. On February 18, voters reelected Museveni to a fifth five-year term and returned an NRM majority to the unicameral National Assembly. The elections fell short of international standards and were marred by allegations of disenfranchisement and voter intimidation, harassment of the opposition, closure of social media websites, and lack of transparency and independence in the Electoral Commission.
On February 18, Uganda held general elections for President and Parliament. More than 10.3 million Ugandan citizens cast their votes at 28,010 polling stations across the country, with voter turnout reaching 63.5 percent – a significant increase from the 57.1 percent turnout during the country’s 2011 general elections. Largely peaceful, the elections were one of the most competitive in Ugandan history. Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni won the presidential contest with 60.75 percent, defeating a field of seven other contenders that included leading opposition candidate Kizza Besigye, who finished in second with 35.37 percent. Uganda’s Election Commission (EC) has not yet released the results for the parliamentary contest; per the 2005 Elections Act, the EC will announce these results as soon as is practicable.
Although Uganda avoided the electoral violence that many feared – as well as the large-scale malfeasance that defined previous polls – some domestic and international actors reported a number of procedural and political problems. The elections also included some positive developments, including the successful deployment of new and important election technologies and a 1.3 million increase in the total number of registered voters relative to the 2011 elections. The EC will seek to build upon these advancements as it prepares for upcoming by-elections in the near future – however, it will do so amid a difficult post-election environment.
Uganda’s National Resistance Movement (NRM), led by President Museveni, has dominated Ugandan politics since its founding in 1986. However, after the 2005 referendum re-introduced multi-party politics, national elections have become more competitive as the opposition strengthened its grassroots organization and the NRM itself began to display signs of infighting and moderate fragmentation – including the defection of former NRM Secretary General Amama Mbabazi, who then chose to run for President in 2016 under a different party banner. President Museveni therefore viewed the 2016 election as an opportunity to re-assert the NRM’s political dominance and achieve a third consecutive presidential term since Parliament removed term limits in 2005.
These elections were also a chance for the opposition to re-establish electoral significance after a setback in 2011, when the primary opposition leader Kizza Besigye received only 26 percent after a much stronger 37 percent showing in 2006. Besigye’s party, the Forum for Democratic Change, also suffered a weaker showing in 2011, while other opposition parties made only moderate parliamentary gains of between one and four seats. The 2015 defection of Mbabazi therefore raised hopes that the opposition might strengthen its grassroots influence and perhaps even form a more coherent, united front. However, internal mistrust and lingering rivalries ultimately prevented the various opposition movements from coalescing around a single presidential candidate.
Given Uganda’s prior electoral challenges, many within civil society and the opposition called for significant electoral reforms in the years leading up to the election. These recommendations included disbanding the EC and changing the nomination process for its Commissioners, which, under the existing constitution, allows the President to nominate and the Parliament to approve. Many key actors claim that this process is exclusive, lacks transparency, and increases the EC’s vulnerability to influence from the President and the NRM. However, despite a lengthy debate over such reforms in Parliament, no action was taken prior to the 2016 election.
The pre-election period was tense with periodic reports of intimidation of opposition activists. Some opposition rallies were shut down and the leading opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, was arrested multiple times. Besigye was also placed under house arrest during and after Election Day, under the pretext of taking preventive measures to avoid instability and violence. On a legal level, the relatively weak regulatory framework for campaign finance enabled campaign spending on a scale never before witnessed in Uganda. Some accused President Museveni and the ruling NRM of improperly using state funds and resources for campaign activities. Moreover, the EC itself was the subject of criticism by some actors for its purported lack of independence from the NRM.
However, although many civil society groups and the opposition criticized the political environment, the election period was relatively peaceful. On Election Day, more than 150,000 police‚ soldiers and other security forces were deployed throughout the country to ensure the safety and security of election staff and the more than 10 million Ugandans that stood in line to vote. Before the election, the police also reportedly trained up to 1.5 million civilians – primarily male youth – to provide additional support for public order during Election Day. This move was criticized by some as an attempt to deploy additional pro-regime “officials” to intimidate voters. On the other side, the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) also created youth groups, called Power 10, with the sole purpose of protecting the FDC’s votes on Election Day. Despite these concerns and documented cases of intimidation by the security forces and to a certain extent the opposition, Uganda largely avoided electoral violence before and during the poll.
Many national and international organizations deployed missions to observe the elections in Uganda – including the European Union, the African Union, the East Africa Community, and the Citizens Election Observers Network-Uganda (CEON-U), among others. The domestic observer network CEON-U was perhaps the most critical of the 2016 elections, reporting that the “context in which Uganda holds its elections cannot allow for free, fair and credible elections.” The EU mission also noted the widespread presence of intimidation, and it was particularly critical of the state use of resources to create an unbalanced political playing field, amid an environment that lacks campaign finance regulations. The continental and regional observation missions were less critical of the political environment, but still did note some procedural shortcomings. All observers praised the peaceful environment on Election Day itself and the relatively calm and orderly nature of the polling stations.
Media reported voter bribery, multiple voting, ballot box stuffing, and the alteration of precinct and district results. Late delivery of voting materials on election day, including ballots, disenfranchised many voters. The most significant delays--up to eight hours-- occurred in opposition-affiliated areas, including Kampala and Wakiso districts. While the EC extended voting from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at a number of polling stations that experienced delayed starts, officials at more than 30 of the most delayed stations cancelled voting and postponed it to the following day.
From February 19 to 29, the 10-day period during which opposition candidates could contest election results, police confined Besigye to his home and limited his access to lawyers and party leadership. Ugandan media announced that opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye – while under house arrest – rejected the outcome of the polls and called for an independent audit of the results by an international commission. Besigye’s party, the FDC, immediately announced that it will gather evidence to legally challenge the outcome. However, the FDC did not successfully submit the challenge within the legal window for electoral appeals.
Besigye’s lawyers claimed police actions rendered it impossible for Besigye to file a legal challenge to election results, although Amama Mbabazi, who came third in the election, did challenge election results. On March 20, the Supreme Court upheld Museveni’s victory, ruling that any incidents of noncompliance with electoral laws before and during the election process did not substantially affect results. On August 26, the Supreme Court recommended changes to electoral laws to increase fairness, including campaign finance reform and equal access for all candidates to state-owned media. The Supreme Court instructed the attorney general to report in two years on government implementation of reforms.
Domestic and international election observers stated that the elections fell short of international standards for credible democratic elections. The Commonwealth Observer Mission’s report noted flawed processes, and the EU’s report noted an atmosphere of intimidation and police use of excessive force against opposition supporters, media workers, and the general public. Domestic and international election observers noted biased media coverage and the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) lack of transparency and independence.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
