Election was a fraud - Mbabazi
Mr Amama Mbabazi
What you need to know:
Flawed. Mr Mbabazi said the events that preceded the election illuminate that this election was fundamentally flawed and that the announced results were not a reflection of the will of the Ugandan people
Kampala.
Go forward Independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi has dismissed the just announced election results saying they were a result of a fraudulent process.
In a statement issued hours after the results were announced, Mr Mbabazi gave an account of how his rallies were disrupted by state agencies. He said the events that preceded the election “illuminates that this election was fundamentally flawed and that the announced results were not a reflection of the will of the Ugandan people.” Mr Mbabazi said his team is investigating what transpired on Election Day, “to determine our next course of action.” Mr Mbabazi, who garnered 132,574 (1.4%) of the 9,701,738 total votes cast, however, called on his supporters and the general public to remain calm.
Mr Mbabazi’s statement came after that of FDC’s Kizza Besigye, who outrightly rejected the outcome of the elections saying it was a sham process. The electoral commission gave Mr Besigye 35 per cent of the total votes cast.
It also came after election observers such as the European Union described the election as anything but free and fair. The United States of America, President Museveni’s big ally, equally slammed the Thursday presidential elections as “deeply inconsistent with international standards and expectations for any democratic process.”
Mr Mbabazi stated: “The last two days, we have experienced the enforced shut-down of social media and Mobile Money services. We have also witnessed and/or obtained information of various incidences of electoral fraud/irregularities.”
The irregularities Mr Amama pointed out include: pre-ticking of presidential ballot papers in favour of the incumbent, intimidation of non-NRM supporters at polling stations by UPDF soldiers, inaccurate tallying by the presiding officers, obstruction of our polling agents.
Others, he pointed out were: concealment of declaration forms, late arrival of election materials at polling stations, incomplete delivery of ballot papers and the announcement of provisional results whilst sections of the population were still voting, “as was the case in Makindye Division and Kyebando in Kampala.”
Mr Mbabazi also said the political ground was not levelled, including the media space.
“My efforts to conduct public consultations in September 2015 were illegally blocked by State agents, infringing on my right as a presidential candidate aspirant to consult the electorate. The police chose to unleash tear gas and fire live ammunition on innocent civilians instead.
“The media landscape was also skewed and this was clearly documented by the African Centre for Media Excellence in their Election Media Monitoring reports where the incumbent dominated the media spectrum,” he said.
The unfairness meted against his campaign and political team during the campaigns, his statement implied, continuously made it had for him to conduct his campaigns.
“They were illustrated by the arrests, assault, disappearance and death of my supporters, the actions of State-sponsored militias like the crime preventers, the intimidation of our mobilisers country-wide and the raiding, by police, of our offices at Nakasero, and my residence in Kololo,” his press statement reads in part.
