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Uganda Elections
1 March 2006
Skepticism lingers about the fairness of the first multi-party presidential elections in Uganda in 25 years. The declared winner, with 59% of the vote was President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for 20 years. Constitutional rules over term limits were changed to allow Museveni to run a third time. European Union observers largely claimed that the results were legitimate, due to the transparency and fairness of the vote on election day. However, they also pointed out that the playing field was not fair in the lead up to the election. Museveni and his party, they pointed out, used considerable government resources to back his campaign. In addition, the main opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, who won 37% of the final tally, was jailed in November accused of treason and rape. Western donors retracted millions of dollars of aid after his arrest, which was seen as a political move.
Besigye has promised to peacefully challenge the results of the election in the courts, mirroring his actions in 2001. He claims to have evidence of fraud.
Some pundits have been critical of the European Union observers’ decision. David Blair of the UK’s Daily Telegraph worries that their conclusion did not match the evidence. He writes, “If the election campaign was unfair, surely the result cannot be considered legitimate. Yet the EU observers stopped short of saying this and, in effect, gave the contest a clean bill of health.”
Sources:
Allafrica.com February 26: http://allafrica.com/stories/200602260004.html
Reuters February 28: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/279e9d1e50c025fd76e33205be7f9980.htm
Washington Post (Reuters) February 28: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022800270.html
Reuters February 27: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-02-27T114854Z_01_L27327267_RTRUKOC_0_US-UGANDA.xml&archived=False
Reuters February 26:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26337593.htm
Daily Telegraph February 27:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=P30&blog=africa&xml=/news/2006/02/27/blafrica27.xml
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