UGANDA'S FLAWED ELECTIONS: December 10, 1980; polling day Museveni challenges Kuteesa’s win in court

In this part, Victor Karamagi looks at the controversial Muwanga proclamation and the election aftermath.

Even after the UPC had secured 17 unopposed seats out of 126, the DP went into the elections in high spirits, confident that the anti-Obote felings in parts of the country was enough to sweep at least 64 of the remaining 109 seats.

Muwanga proceeded to grant most of the safeguards he had promised in Dar es Salaam but remained firm against the use of one ballot box per polling station. The biggest concession Muwanga made and which ensured that the elections were conducted in a safe, free atmosphere was to lock up all the soldiers in the barracks and remove all the roadblocks on polling day.

December 10 was very peaceful throughout the country. The people turned up in full force to vote and they were not hindered in this pursuit. But it had been collective wishful thinking on the part of everybody to expect the election materials to be delivered to all polling stations on time that day.

With minimal transport and broken down infrastructure, it was physically impossible to supply all the polling stations in the morning. As a result, voting did not start in some stations until after midday.

Although polling was supposed to close that afternoon, voting had hardly began in some stations. After a flury of consultations, with all the attendant suspicions, it was agreed that the military commission extends the voting until 2.00 pm on December 11.

DP supporters as expected claimed that Muwanga wanted the ballot boxes to be tampered with at night so that their many votes could be switched and given to UPC. But all the people maintained vigil and there was no documented case of any ballot switching.

The next day, DP leaders started announcing that their party had won over 70 constituencies. It transpired that they were basing on results from the nearby areas of Buganda and Busoga which had overwhelmingly voted for DP.

Taken to task over all the claims, they admitted to the commonwealth observers that they had not received results for all the constituencies they were claiming. Counting was actually, still going on in some of the constituencies the DP was claiming.

It is amidst all this confusion that Paulo Muwanga had issued the unforgettable proclamation, which DP always cites as evidence that the election was stolen. Results that had so far been announced indicated that DP was heading for victory. Then the bomb: Muwanga issued a proclamation barring anyone from announcing the election results.

The decree had made it a criminal offence punishable by a fine of 500,000 shillings (then $70,000) or a prison term of up to five years or both. Only the Military Commission Chairman had the powers to announce the results, and he had the discretion to declare results null and void. He directed all returning officers to send results directly to him, sidestepping the Electoral Commission.
In effect, Muwanga took over the powers of the electoral body.

Muwanga had panicked by the premature claims of victory and outlawed the announcement of results except by himself. To the DP supporters in the central region and nearby districts of Busoga where their party had won by almost 100 percent, this could be nothing but a plot to steal their victory.

Muwanga's side was not amused by the proclamation either. They viewed it as ammunition to the DP to claim that their victory was being stolen. Candidate Obote reprimanded head of state Muwanga for the blunder. Obote knew the central region had voted heavily against his party but he did not fear their reaction if he was eventually announced the winner.

He repeated his favourite line about inhabitants of the central region: "The Baganda are a funny people; they defy you if they suspect you are weak but once they know you are strong, they fall in line." Chastised, Muwanga signed another instrument to rescind the proclamation.

When the Commonwealth Observers, on the fervent pleas of the DP, went in to demand that he withdraws the proclamation, they were surprised when he simply accepted without argument. They did not know that the decision had already been taken. They were out of his office in a minute.

Meanwhile, DP leaders, lead by Akbar Adoko Nekyon a former UPC but who had become a DP before the 1980 elections and has since returned to UPC, were issuing victory to whoever cared to listen. Sections of the foreign press lapped up the information and on crosschecking it with a source given to them by the DP officials in the electoral commission, "confirmed" the DP victory and filed their stories.

Basing their observations on the smooth polling exercise, the Commonwealth Observers also passed their initial verdict - the election broadly reflected the choice of the people of Uganda... that vague expression that now concludes election observer reports was born then. But the real compilation of results was far from over.

1980 election aftermath
To those who insisted that the 1980 elections were stolen, the 'proof' was Muwanga's proclamation on December 11 1980.

The debate on the rigging has over the years centered on this controversial announcement. DP and UPM charged that the Military Commission chief intended to switch the results if DP turned out to be the winner. But a quarter of a century after the act, most people can face the record of events squarely.
On December 18 1980, DP leader Paul Semogerere addressed a press conference in Kampala where he said that the declared results were a reversal of the actual ones on Election Day.

But all he could say was that Muwanga's proclamation "was a departure from the normal procedure governing free and fair elections."
However, UPC argued, and has subsequently been supported by some authors that the decision was necessary because the Electoral Commission had lost control of the process and DP was already announcing that it had won the polls.

Says Prof. George Kanyeihamba in Constitutional and Political History of Uganda: "Admittedly, there is some evidence that in some areas, particularly in Buganda, some DP supporters were getting overenthusiastic and claiming that it had won the seats even where counting of votes had not commenced.

Some of that party's officials released false news and broadcast it to the international media that their party had won elections in Uganda and would be forming the next government."

But still Kanyeihamba says that stopping such a trend should never have been done the way Muwanga did.
"Certainly, such enthusiasm and falsities needed to be contained but not in the manner Paulo Muwanga did.

Muwanga's decision later turned out to be his undoing. Kanyeihamba says: "Paulo Muwanga's statement severely undermined the credibility with which Ugandans and the international community received the news that UPC had won the elections."

Historian Samwiri Karugire (RIP) said in Roots of Instability in Uganda that: "It is as clear as daylight Muwanga did not usurp the powers of the Electoral Commission for nothing. This was the climax in the election rigging."
Museveni's UPM was as ruthless: "The so called decree of 1Oth December that required all election results to be cleared by the Chairman of the Military Commission before they were declared was the highest exhibition of the ruthless manoeuvres through which Obote has come to power," the party said after the elections.

On December 12, Muwanga gave the Electoral Commission the power to announce election results and UPC had won the controversial elections. The official results announced gave UPC 72 seats, DP 51, UPM 1, CP none. 2 seats were not declared, making a total of 126.

UPM rejects results: "Ugandans have been cheated"
UPM National Executive Committee reacted by rejecting the election results, saying that Ugandans have been cheated. "Such a reaction was expected, because the party had in fact been bulldozed into participation having earlier threatened to boycott. When DP dropped the threat, the UPM had no alternative but to tag a long.

The party's response reminded DP that the so-called election safeguards were just a farce, and DP should never have expected to win. "This [UPC victory] should not be a surprise to any Ugandan much less to the DP leadership. The redolent practices UPC has employed in the whole electoral process have all along been highlighted by the UPM and their climax at the polling stage," the party said in response to the declared results.

The party highlighted what it called scandals in which UPC engaged to steal the election as a basis for its rejection. In particular, it cited the proclamation by Muwanga, urging Obote to "recognise the vital role of the will of the people as a whole in shaping their destiny, which will can only be expressed through free and fair elections."

Nyerere, Moi welcome Obote victory
Among the heads of State that first sent congratulatory messages was Tanzania's Julius Nyerere. In a congratulatory message to Obote, Nyerere said he looked forward to cooperating with the UPC leader.

"The people have expressed their confidence in your party and I look forward to cordial cooperation. The return of the rule of laws by an elected government after years of Idi Amin's tyranny is a forerunner of a new pause in East African Cooperation to which we look forward with great pleasure," the statement said.

Nyerere had not yet withdrawn about 20,000 Tanzanian troops that were in Uganda and was therefore an influential person in the affairs of Uganda.

Four days after the election, Tanzania also sent a six-man delegation on December 14 led by Rashid Kawawa and Foreign Minister Salim Ahmed. The team also included Defence Minister Lt. Gen. Abdalla Twallipo. Salim 'advised' the losing parties to accept the election results and provide real opposition to Obote's government. "In any election, there are bound to be winners and losers. In this case, the winners are the people of Uganda," he said in Dar-es-Salaam on return from Kampala.

Kenya's Daniel Arap Moi also weighed in, congratulating Obote and the UPC.
"It is my earnest hope that your triumph will bring with it political stability and maintenance of law and order in Uganda so that a new climate conducive to meaningful reconstruction and development of your country can now reign," Moi said in a message to Obote. Congratulatory messages also came in from Malawi and India.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said in a message she hoped UPC victory would "usher in an era of stability, peace and prosperity for the people of Uganda."

DP maintains "positive attitude"
The roots of DP's 'positive attitude' stance can be traced to the Dar-es-Salaam meeting with Muwanga over the ballot box saga. It is in this meeting that Muwanga detected that the party could after all compromise on key issues. But the stance was laid bare in the aftermath of the elections.

On December 18, DP chief Semogerere said that because of this stance, DP candidates who had won elections were free to take up their seats in Parliament. Yet, the party was sharply divided on whether the party should concede defeat and take up the seats in the house. Taking up seats, some argued, would legitimise the UPC victory while others felt that it was futile trying to hold back, perhaps signifying deep lying surrender and frustration over the whole election process.

Ssemogerere was at it again on whether DP would accept cabinet posts just in case Dr Obote floated the idea, saying the party would decide on the issue "on its merits."
The Weekly Topic noted that "observers took it to mean that DP does not rule out the possibility of some o its members joining Obote's cabinet.

This 'positive attitude' was maintained even after DP became the opposition in Parliament. During the inaugural session of Parliament,the DP leader seconded UPC's Francis Butagira for the post of Speaker. Prime Minister Otema Alimadi proposed the Mbarara South-West MP, who had resigned his position as High Court judge after the overthrow of Idi Amin.

Ssemogerere seconded him "on behalf of all DP members in the House." Butagira is currently Uganda's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Dp's positive attitude has since become part of its legacy. Even when Yoweri Museveni captured power after the five-year civil war, DP accepted his invitation to join in his government.

Ssemogerere was a cabinet minister for about 10 years until 1996 when he quit to contest in the Presidential elections. 96 when he quit to contest the 1996 presidential elections.

Museveni files petition challenging Kuteesa election
Smarting from a loss to DP's Sam Kutesa, UPM President Yoweri Museveni filed a petition in the High Court. Museveni wanted the court to declare Kutesa's election null and void, listing 10 grounds alleging a number of irregularities. Among the grounds on which he based the petition, Museveni said that:

* Some voters who registered did not appear on the voter registers on election and were turned away
* The same registers were not displayed for inspection as was supposed to be the case.
* Demarcation of his constituency was made after the constituencies had been gazetted
* A number of cases were recorded where there was multiple voting where Kutesa's supporters used one card to vote more than once.
* In some places, the ballot boxes were not sealed while in others, there were no party symbols on display

Muwanga hands over; Obote pledges "government of law but not of men"
Muwanga's words and actions after the declaration of results hardly show any signs of a guilty man. On December 15 during the swearing in ceremony of Obote as President at Parliament, he hailed the 'heroic struggle of our people in revival of democracy and freedom' during the elections."

At the swering in ceremony, Army Chief of Staff Brigadier David Oyite Ojok jokingly described Muwanga a man without a job, since the Military Commission rule was over. Obote soon appointed Muwanga as his Vice President and Minister of Defence.

"Let us be inspired by our neighbours and friends- Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Learn Kenya's harambee, the spirit of pulling together, Tanzania's self-reliance and Zambia's spirit of humanism," Obote said after swearing in as President.

"I pledge a government of law and not of men. To DP, which was still smarting from the unexpected defeat, Obote was categorical, urging the party to take up its position as the opposition in Parliament.

"Our destiny is the same. We either rise or sink together," he said. Obote's main challenges as he assumed office, as he saw it, was the "plenty of guns in the hands of criminals, the economy and shattered infrastructure."