The Other Side Of The Coin

Have The People Spoken In This Presidential Poll? According to Besigye, the voters' register was not cleaned well With Paul Waibale Senior NOBODY can honestly claim that the March 12 presidential elections were perfect. No such elections have ever taken place anywhere in the world ever since the system was introduced. Consequently, the yardstick for measuring the outcome is not the absolute absence of election hitches, but the commulative effect of the entire exercise. In the case of the recent presidential polls, Ugandans, in the words of the Chairman of the Post Referendum Support Group, Fleming Bjork Pedersen, made a genuine choice of a president. That is the crux of the matter. It is not, therefore, strange that foreign observers plus local and international monitoring groups endorsed the view that the presidential polls had reflected the true wishes of the people of Uganda. They too observed that there were election anomalies here and there, as indeed there are in any elections (the difference being a question of degree), but they categorically gave the result the affirmative tick. Three of Museveni's opponents in the race - Aggrey Awori, Francis Bwenje and Chapaa Karuhanga - are this opinion. What then is all this hullabaloo regarding Museveni's grand 69.3% victory about? Basically, it is orchestrated by a frustrated loser, Col Dr Kiiza Besigye, who entered the presidential race with the misguided conviction of "either I win or they lose." Nevertheless, let us look at the wild-tone accusations advanced by Besigye and his major campaign boosters such as Dr Paul Ssemogerere and Haji Nasser Ssebaggala and examine them for what they are worth. According to Besigye, the voters register was not adequately cleaned. Consequently, ghost voters were not removed and they, therefore, also participated in the polling exercise. Suffice it to observe that the polling was postponed for about a week to extend the period for the checking of the voters register and point out the ghosts, such as the dead, the under-aged, the foreigners, et cetra, for appropriate action. The Electoral Commission appealed to all the candidates to send out agents to all polling stations to check the registers and raise objections against any unqualified persons on the voters register. There is no claim by Besigye or any other candidate that people objected to for one reason or another had remained on the voters register. Obviously, the Electoral Commission, has no way of identifying ghost voters unless they are pointed out by the stake-holders. If Besigye and other candidates ignored that vital aspect of the election process, they have only themselves to blame. Interestingly, Winnie Byanyima, the MP for Mbarara Town who is Besigye's wife, had the audacity to tell a press conference that under-age children had voted as many as six times in her constituency. She did not explain why such children, having been identified as obvious ghost voters were never apprehended. I find it difficult to resist the temptation of dismissing her story as merely a figment of her imagination. Then there is talk about the army being deployed into the election process. In my submission, the army was not involved in the election process as claimed. The army was deployed to ensure security throughout the country and never featured at the polling stations. Anybody who argues that people were intimidated by the presence of armed soldiers on the streets to the extent that they were scared of voting, must be a stranger in Uganda. It is a fact the Museveni has demystified the gun in Uganda that a taxi conductor will punch an armed soldier who refuses to pay the correct taxi fare. Those, incidentally, are some of the grounds on which Besigye says he will base his petition to the Supreme Court asking for the nulifying of the presidential election result. The futility of the exercise does not expunge his right to seek legal redress from the statute books. So I am inclined to offer him my best wishes. On the other hand, I regard the threat by Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, that a DP task force will be set up to "look into various options" as a mere farce. First of all, Ssemogerere is right now the leader of a mere faction of DP. The other faction is lead by Francis Bwengye who has conceded defeat in the presidential race. In any case, Ssemogerere persisted in dancing to Besigye electoral tune despite Besigye's insistance that he still belonged to the Movement. Anybody who recalls the bitter words Ssemogerere uttered after the 1980 elections when he promised to produce the "Black Book" which has never been heard of again in a period of two decades, cannot take him seriously. His only political achievement is that he has presided over the historical split in the Democratic Party. Ends