Ugandan President Museveni Wins Vote as Opposition Rejects Result
By Nangayi Guyson in Kampala Uganda – Uganda’s Electoral Commission chairman Badru Kiggundu announced Yoweri Museveni as the elected President of Uganda after winning with 68.38 percent of voters followed by his main rival, Kizza Besigye, the flag bearer of four-party coalition Inter-Party Cooperation with 26.01 percent, told reporters today in Kampala.
- President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda
Badru Kiggundu made announcement at 40:30pm from Mandela National stadium which has been used as the tallying center. When news reached the opposition, they rejected the result saying any government President Yoweri Museveni formed would be “illegitimate” and added in a statement that before the final results were announced. European Union observers said the vote was “marred by avoidable and logistical failures, which led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disenfranchised.”
Besigye said he hasn’t ruled out calling for protests over the election result. Talks are planned to determine what steps should be taken next, he told reporters today in Kampala.
“We have resolved to consult other political actors, religious leaders, civil society and the public to determine how to bring an end to the illegitimate government that may be installed,” Besigye said. “We will keep the country informed.” Nicholas Sengoba, a Kampala-based independent analyst, said Uganda’s opposition may be reluctant to incite violence because of concern that they may suffer the same fate as the alleged leaders of post-election clashes in neighboring Kenya in 2008 and face possible prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
The Hague-based ICC is considering cases against six Kenyans, including Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, on allegations of crimes against humanity in the fighting that left 1,500 people dead. They all deny the charges.
Uprising
“Many people are fearful of rising up in case the violence turns ethnic, and goes the Kenyan way,” Sengoba said. “If you entice people and then lose control, you could still be held responsible and that may end up at the ICC.”
President Museveni’s Credit
Museveni, the leader of the ruling National Resistance Movement, has taken credit for delivering steady economic growth and bringing stability to a country once threatened by rebels including Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. Expansion in East Africa’s third-biggest economy, after Kenya and Tanzania, is expected to accelerate to 6.1 percent this year from 5.8 percent in 2010, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund.
Museveni expects oil production to help lift Uganda’s economy to middle-income status by 2016, almost doubling annual per capita gross domestic product to $800, while adding as many as half a million jobs every year.
Museveni’s victory keeps him in control of an economy on the cusp of an oil boom. Tullow Oil Plc, the U.K.-based energy company, will probably start pumping crude and gas from the Lake Albert Basin in 2012. Uganda has an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil, with about 1 billion barrels already proven, according to Tullow.
