Italian envoy asks for level playing field in campaigns

Mr Domenico Fornara, the Italian Ambassador to Uganda, during the interview last week. Photo by Domenic Bukenya

KAMPALA. With the campaign season picking pace, Italian Ambassador to Uganda Domenico Fornara has revealed that the donor community is keeping a close eye on developments and called for “a [level] playing field between candidates” in the run-up to next year’s elections.

Amb Fornara said in an interview last Tuesday that: “We, as European Union partners are, of course, paying high attention to the elections, we think that this is the highest political moment of the country [and] we encourage a [level] playing field between candidates.”
His observation, which follows similar public expressions by other foreign diplomats accredited to Kampala, follows bitter complaints by some presidential hopefuls that police and the newly-renamed Independent Electoral Commission, are bending the rules to favour President Museveni.

Neither Italy nor the EU, Amb Fornara said, is taking sides because the electioneering is Uganda’s internal issue. “Our hope is that the process will develop [in] the most pacific manner, transparent, and only in the interest of Ugandan voters,” he said.
The envoy’s counsel came a day after the EU Head of Delegation, Amb. Kristian Schmidt, in a meeting with the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanya on Monday, last week, raised concern about excessive commercialisation of Uganda’s politics.

“We all hope for elections improving from one to the other. And there is nothing new in that but maybe there is something new in the scope of commercialisation of politics. Do you have concerns about this?” the EU delegation head said.
Mr Oulanya did not respond to the specific inquiry, pointing instead at the irony in some candidates losing to rivals even after they out-spend them.
In the interview on Tuesday, Mr Fornara underlined that as an EU member country, Italy will be obliged to stand by the bloc’s position on any issue.
Amb Fornara said the EU is having a constant dialogue with the authorities here and “we are happy that the Uganda government has invited an election observation mission from the EU”.

The 28-member bloc monitored Uganda’s 2011 ballot, and recommended electoral reforms that Uganda’s opposition political parties and civil society later pushed for unsuccessfully. Parliament deferred consideration of the omnibus proposals to a future constitutional review commission and, a fortnight ago, enacted a set of government-authored changes that, among other things, raised nomination fees for parliamentary and presidential candidates, knocking out potential competitors who are short on cash.

The Italian envoy said EU is currently in conversations with other election stakeholders in Uganda and exploring to “evaluate if and how the EU’s election observation mission will be able to deploy during the elections.”
Ugandans expect to go to the polls between February and March 2016, although the electoral body has postponed nomination of presidential candidates to early November, on grounds that last week’s changes to the electoral laws made it necessary.
Opposition presidential aspirants, notably Forum for Democratic Change’s Dr Kizza Besigye and independents Venansius Baryamureeba and Mr Amama Mbabazi, a former prime minister, have all accused the IEC of tinkering with the rules to favour the ruling party and President Museveni.

But the IEC denies it is on the government’s leash. The aspirants are presently only allowed to conduct consultations in enclosed places and not public campaigns pending their official nomination, but only if police give a go ahead. These official restrictions, they say, tie them down while Mr Museveni, they allege, is traversing the country canvassing for votes under the guise of promoting wealth creation in his official capacity.
Last week’s comments by the European diplomats dovetail with observations that Scott DeLisi, the former US ambassador who retired from diplomatic service and left the country last month, made that government should ensure high integrity of the election process for Ugandans to have confidence in its outcome.