Movt Won LC Polls, Says M7

Jan 15, 2002

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni said yesterday that the Movement overwhelmingly won the recent Local Council 3 elections despite the Electoral Commission’s inefficiency which he described as a “mess and serious waste of public funds.”

By Alfred WasikePRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni said yesterday that the Movement overwhelmingly won the recent Local Council 3 elections despite the Electoral Commission’s inefficiency which he described as a “mess and serious waste of public funds.”Museveni, fresh from regional summits of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Khartoum, Sudan and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Blantyre, Malawi, warned the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) against “ever again trying to destabilise Uganda like they did in the 1960s, the 1980s and recently.”Museveni said he was investigating reports of widespread nepotism and inefficiency of the Electoral Commission. “I hear that those commissioners employ their relatives, use their vehicles to transport electoral materials. This is very serious. If this is true then that is where their inefficiency starts.”He said though Aziz Kasujja, the commission chief, had messed up the elections, “the Movement did very well, as usual.”“The Movement won overwhelmingly nation-wide. I have the results with me here. For example in the Central region, the Movement won by 82.3% while 17.7% went to unclear people whether Movement or not,” he said. Museveni was addressing reporters at the Nakasero State House for the first time this year. He urged the media to “help” him “develop” Uganda. Museveni emphasised that his definition of Movement as opposed to multiparty candidates is based on “what the candidates tell us in public.”Ministers Basoga Nsadhu, Gilbert Bukenya, Attorney General Francis Ayume, Museveni’s adviser on political affairs, Moses Byaruhanga, Movement information director Ofwono Opondo and other government officials attended. Museveni said, “In the East, the Movement scored 74.8% while about 25% went to unclear candidates. In the West, the Movement scored 89.3% while 10.7% went to unclear candidates. In the North the Movement scored 84.1% while about 15% went to unclear candidates. In places like Kotido, Nakapiripirit, Yumbe and others, the Movement scored 100%.” He lashed out at the Electoral Commission, “We gave these fellows so much money. It is in billions.But they are just there. They can’t operate computers. They mix up election materials. They distribute them late. But some of our people saved the situation at the last minute. Nevertheless the elections went well.” Museveni singled out the commission as part of the “weaknesses that we are trying to correct.” He hailed the Movement Government for helping build a strong State since 1986 that has curbed insecurity internally and externally. “We are not like the UPC who used to fiddle with ballot boxes. Can your (UPC officials Night) Kulabako and (Dr. James) Rwanyarare show me any other group that was in existence when they were in power in the 1960s? “Those groups like the UPC, DP tore Uganda apart with their sectarianism based on ethnicity and religion. They were poison to our society,” he said.“I might have been tempted to ban the UPC except for our liberal approach. “The UPC killed more people in Uganda than the al Qaeda did in New York. We did not ban them like President Bush has banned the al Qaeda in the USA by freezing their accounts, closing their offices and arresting them. “The UPC don’t want to discuss. We have the Constitutional Review Commission where they can take their views. “UPC wants to impose themselves on Uganda. We shall not allow that,” he said. Museveni said a former Singaporean premier, Li Kwan Yu, visited Uganda and Tanzania when he (Museveni) was a student in the 1960s. “I later met him in 1987 in Vancouver, Canada. He told Obote that it was a bad idea for him to ban monarchies. Singapore was at the same level with Uganda in development. “But look at Singapore today. These UPCs have wasted our time. I will sponsor a trip for a group of journalists to go and interview him,” he said.On last Saturday’s aborted UPC rally, he said, “The problem is that there is too much freedom in Uganda today. “That policeman who carried live bullets was indisciplined. You don’t need live bullets for those Kulabakos. Just piga wajinga (hit the fools) but with rubber bullets.”Ends

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