Uganda opposition says electoral body working with ruling party

By Juma Kwayera

Uganda opposition fears the Uganda Electoral Commission is working in cahoots with the governing National Resistance Movement (NRM) to skew the results of the polls set for this Friday.

The similarity of the pre-poll incidents in the East Africa Community (EAC) have led to calls for formation of a strong and independent regional electoral body to oversee polls in the five member-states to guard against frequent electoral fraud allegations.

Uganda is the last of the five countries to hold elections since Kenya’s 2007 poll that was marred by violence, which claimed 1,200 lives and displaced nearly 500,000 people from their homes.

Outcomes manipulated

Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi have in the past had their share of political violence too.

The disputed Kenyan polls brought into question the role of the so-called independent electoral commissions after chairman of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya, Samuel Kivuitu, was accused of failing to prevent malpractices during tallying of presidential votes.

The helplessness of the Uganda Electoral Commission chaired by Rev Baddru Kiggundu has raised similar fears that it is likely to repeat the mistakes of the ECK, leading to violent confrontations between the ruling party and the opposition if the latter can prove its allegations of massive irregularities.

So far the election campaigns have been peaceful compared to the 2006 and 2001 polls. The National Election Commission of Tanzania almost plunged the country into violence in the November poll when the opposition accused it of delaying to release the presidential results.

Tanzanian opposition parties led by Chadema accused the commission, which is chaired by retired Justice Lewis Makame, of manipulating presidential poll outcome in favour of incumbent Jakaya Kikwete. In Rwanda, Paul Kagame’s governing APR was in August accused of violent harassment — that included killing.

In Burundi, the opposition boycotted the polls alleging that presidential and parliamentary poll outcomes had been manipulated by the electoral commission.

Against this backdrop, the Registrar of the East African Court of Justice, John Eudes Ruhangisa, says that as the region moves towards a political federation, there is need to harmonise the laws of the five countries to seal the loopholes that give way to election irregularities.

"A uniform election law can be the first step towards addressing poll disputes. It is a good idea to start behaving like one people as we head towards a political federation. Having an election body with a membership from the five states can give election results some credibility," Dr Ruhangisa says.

He says formation of a regional body to oversee elections in the five states has been on the cards at the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala), but the proposal has not received strong executive backing.

Financial implications

If the five countries were to stick to the EAC treaty implementation timelines, the region should become a single political entity in 2013.

Kenya’s representative to Eala, Gervas Akhaabi, told The Standard On Sunday the formation of a regional electoral body has been slowed by the financial implications.

"We are concerned at the lack of common standards on election process in the EAC. As a community, we have not set the guidelines to be adhered to if we have to entrench democracy and avoid electoral malpractice," says Akhaabi.

In a pattern that has become common with the elections in the region, Ugandan opposition parties have upped their criticism of the Uganda Electoral Commission, which they accuse of partiality. Post-election violence looks dangerously in the offing.

The criticism escalated on Friday following an opinion poll results by Afro Barometer pollster, which shows Museveni in a clear lead with 65 per cent of the vote. The other candidates — Forum for Democratic Change’s Kizza Besigye, Uganda People’s Congress Party’s Olara Otunu and Democratic Party’s Norbert Mao — share the remaining percentage that excludes the 16 per cent of undecided voters.

At regional level, the Ugandan poll will be the last in a cycle of controversial elections that began with Kenya’s disputed 2007 presidential poll outcome. The other three countries — Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi — held elections last year whose outcomes were also contested.

Gulu Municipality parliamentary candidate Emmanuel Lutukomoi says the electoral commission is staffed with pro-Museveni people with the objective of executing an election fraud.

Interviewed, Lutukomoi who is also the Democratic Party spokesman, said, "The commission is not neutral. It is a cadre electoral commission like the civil service, the judiciary, the police and the military. It receives directives from the NRM top command."

Cadre in Uganda’s political lingo refers to NRM members who serve the party in various capacities. Cadres have been the pillars of the ruling party, but have in the past been accused of committing serious atrocities to prop Museveni’s presidency.

Museveni came to power in 1986, following a protracted rebellion. After elections marked by violence in 2001, the president pushed through Parliament an amendment in the Constitution in 2005 that nullified Uganda’s two-term presidential limit. It allowed him to run in the controversial election in 2006 and again this year.