In Summary
- FDC leader Kizza Besigye has been under house arrest since February 22.
- Local and foreign individuals and organisations who have made the calls say dialogue is necessary to clear the “sombre mood” in the country following the announcement of the election result on February 20.
- And after nearly a week of a blockade during which Dr Besigye has been kept under house arrest and police custody, with no access to family and his lawyers, the FDC leader was on Friday allowed to receive a delegation of diplomats from Western countries, led by the European Union Ambassador Kristian Schmidt.
- President Museveni’s decision on the current political stand-off will also give the earliest signal yet how he is likely to govern over the next five years.
Ugandans await President Yoweri Museveni’s response to calls
for dialogue with Forum for Democratic Change leader Dr Kizza Besigye,
who he has kept under a lockdown after the latter rejected the results
of the February 18 presidential election.
Local and foreign individuals and organisations who have made
the calls say dialogue is necessary to clear the “sombre mood” in the
country following the announcement of the election result on February
20.
Those who have made such calls so far include Maj-Gen Benon
Biraaro and Dr Abed Bwanika, both of whom were presidential
candidates, the Uganda Joint Christian Council, the Inter-Religious
Council of Uganda (IRCU), the Uganda Women’s Network, the Uganda Human
Rights Commission, the Uganda Law Society, the United Nations and the
election observer missions.
And after nearly a week of a blockade during which Dr Besigye
has been kept under house arrest and police custody, with no access to
family and his lawyers, the FDC leader was on Friday allowed to receive a
delegation of diplomats from Western countries, led by the European
Union Ambassador Kristian Schmidt.
The diplomats arrived at 2pm but were at first denied entry
before the heavily armed police caved in after making frantic calls, and
allowed the ambassadors into Dr Besigye’s compound. Details of what was
discussed are still scanty as both parties remained tight-lipped.
President Museveni was declared winner with 5,617,503
votes, representing 60.75 per cent of the vote, extending his 30-year
rule by five more years. Dr Besigye polled 3,270,290 votes, representing
35.37 per cent.
As results from other polling stations that had not yet been
tallied continued to trickle in, by February 22, the numbers had jumped
to 5,971,872 (60.62 per cent) for President Museveni against Dr
Besigye’s 3,508,687 votes (35.61 per cent).
Dr Besigye and the FDC, Uganda’s largest opposition party,
immediately rejected the results and set out to challenge them,
by calling for an independent and transparent audit of the outcome.
Police then mounted a lockdown at his home on February 22, and blocked him from going to the Electoral Commission to demand results from each polling station for the presidential and parliamentary elections, which he said he needed, alongside other information, “to prepare a well-considered response.” The blockade was still on by the time we went to press.
Police then mounted a lockdown at his home on February 22, and blocked him from going to the Electoral Commission to demand results from each polling station for the presidential and parliamentary elections, which he said he needed, alongside other information, “to prepare a well-considered response.” The blockade was still on by the time we went to press.
Reacting to the stand-off, the Inter Religious Council of
Uganda, which organised the first presidential debate in the country,
said: “It is our conviction that the way forward for this country
requires willingness on both sides of the political divide to open up to
each other for an honest and straight engagement in dialogue towards a
peaceful and productive future for our country.”
According to some analysts, this year’s election appears to be
the last in which the voices of the traditional donor community from the
West will matter as their authority is set to gradually diminish with
the rise of alternative sources of foreign support and oil revenues.
“Donors now have a finite period of time during which their
opinions and actions over electoral reform can influence State House,”
said Dr Jonathan Fisher in an analysis of the role international donors
played in the 2011 elections.
Dr Fisher has researched the relationship between the Ugandan
government and its international aid donors between 1986 and 2010. The
71-year-old President Museveni, could be on course for a life presidency
if he pushes through an amendment to the Constitution to remove the 75
years age limit.
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