Besigye appeals to EC, Army and international community on final day of campaigns

Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye said Tuesday morning he has garnered enough countrywide support to win Thursday's election, appealing to the Electoral Commission and the armed forces to rise to their constitutional responsibilities.

Speaking at his Kasangati home ahead of his final day campaign rallies in Nakawa Division of Kampala, Dr Besigye also appealed to regional and international players to speak up about what he said was a deteriorating environment ahead of the elections.

The now four-time presidential candidate was yesterday blocked from campaigning in the city center and detained on two occasions in a standoff that left a still unidentified man dead, tens injured and tens detained.

Regarding the man who died, Dr Besigye said: "We shall mourn him and declare him a hero of the liberation struggle."

He said Uganda, which had in recent years been known for promoting regional and continental peace, has "now become a major threat to peace and stability in the region and Africa".

To regional States and the international community he said: "We have a local saying here that you should not let the baby who you are going to carry on your back to first get covered in mud."

He renewed his brawl with the Electoral Commision, saying the body had ignored all calls to carry out "even the most basic reforms".

He called on the Commission's chairman, Dr Badru Kiggundu, and the body's spokespeople,to "desist from overt partisanship". "As late as last night Prof Kiggundu said in an on-record television interview that if he had his own way I would not have been nominated."

Dr Kiggundu said this Monday night as a guest on "The Big Debate", a segment of the 9:00pm news broadcast on NTV. He took issue, not for the first time, with Dr Besigye's 'defuance' message.

To the armed forces, Dr Besigye said: "The actions or inactions of the officers and men in uniform may lead to disastrous consequences."

He called on them to 'act judiciously and remember the country is bigger than the Commander in Chief. The Commander in Chief must abide by the law."

A former bush war fighter and commander in the military until his retirement in 1999, Dr Besigye, flanked by former army commander Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, urged those in charge of the military to "recognise the suffering all the other militaries have suffered," saying that the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces should not be "scrapped" even after President Museveni leaves power.

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