Museveni speaks out ON NRM polls
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni yesterday issued a strong statement on the NRM party primaries, which were marred by chaos, violence, rigging and shortage of voting materials.
By Raymond Baguma
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni yesterday issued a strong statement on the NRM party primaries, which were marred by chaos, violence, rigging and shortage of voting materials.
Museveni who is also the party chairman apologised to party members for the inconvenience and promised to investigate the problem.
He warned against vote rigging and violence. “I have heard that some people have tried to alter the election results. All these are criminal offences and you can be arrested for them and imprisoned. Therefore tomorrow when you go for voting, ensure that these problems are not there.â€Â
I greet you the people of Uganda. In particular, I greet the members of the National Resistance Movement. I wish to congratulate and thank the members of National Resistance movement who turned up on the 30th of August to vote in the NRM primaries.
You turned up in millions – in big numbers. You have shown the people of Uganda and the whole world the huge support the Movement enjoys in the country. I thank you, I salute you and I congratulate you.
Unfortunately, the administrative arrangements were not so good. You, therefore, ended up lining up for many hours and some of you could not vote on that day.
The elections had to be postponed – some of them to later dates and some of them to tomorrow the 4th September 2010. I am sorry about this inconvenience which was caused to you. We are studying the reasons why the Electoral Commission of the NRM did not provide the materials in time and also in enough quantities.
There seems to be a confluence or a combination of two problems. One problem is the irresponsibility of some of the leaders in the NRM who are so selfish. They don’t think about anything else other than themselves. These are the ones who complicate the work of for instance the NRM voters’ register.
You have heard complaints of NRM voters whose names were left out just because somebody did not support him or her previously.
You have heard attempts by some people to inflate – to put in names which are not there. We have had situations where senior leaders are biased against some members of the Movement.
Yet I have told all the leaders repeatedly that a senior leader should not take sides among his juniors. It should be the people to elect and not the leaders to elect.
I, as chairman of the NRM, am ready to work with anybody elected by members of the NRM as long as he is a member of the NRM. So, that was one problem – the selfishness of some of the leaders.
The other problem is the weaknesses in the Electoral commission which we are going to study and we see how to rectify.
Now that you are going to vote again tomorrow, I appeal to all concerned to avoid the mistakes which were noticed on the 30th August and the days subsequent to that. The ones who are voting tomorrow are the ones who have not voted. There are some districts which have not voted. These are the ones voting tomorrow and some of the other areas.
In particular, I would like to emphasise these points.
Point number one: you should know that to inflate deliberately the list of NRM members is a crime. You can even be arrested. Although this is an internal party election, but under the laws of Uganda you are not allowed to more or less commit forgery. If you are a registrar registering NRM members, you must register all the NRM members. You don’t add on, you don’t subtract. To do so is to commit a forgery.
It is also criminal to try and bribe voters. You can be arrested for that. The laws of Uganda do not allow that; even though this is an internal party election.
You can also be in trouble for using bad language in the elections.
You can also be in trouble for altering the election results. I have heard that some people have tried to alter the election results. All these are criminal offences and you can be arrested for them and imprisoned.
Therefore, tomorrow, when you go for voting, ensure that these problems are not there. And in order to ensure that this is done properly, you should ensure that all the votes are counted immediately after voting.
When the voting closes, the votes should be counted, announced, recorded and all the agents sign and the election officials. Then the rest is just adding up. If anybody tries to alter that, he will be discovered. But also, he will be in trouble with the law. He can go to jail. I would appeal to all of you not to involve yourselves in violence. There is no need for violence. If there is any problem, just complain. If you complain, the NRM election officials will take action. If they don’t, I will take action as the party leader. I have for instance dispatched an investigation team to a number of areas including Sembabule. So, if there is anybody playing games, we shall find him out and deal with him using the law or the constitution of the NRM.
So, there is no need for you to be violent or to even quarrel. If you are not happy with anything, just put your objection on paper and if the officials concerned don’t listen to you, through the channels, you can come up to me the chairman and we can solve this one.
Finally, there is the question of those people who say that people who convert from other parties and come to the NRM are not Movement people. This is a wrong position. The only thing is that the process of conversion from other parties to NRM should be properly verified. It is like religion. Suppose I am a Muslim and I want to convert to Christianity, I will not be considered to have converted to Christianity until I am baptised. Then I become a Christian and I stop being a Muslim. Or if I am a Christian and I want to become a Muslim, I must be circumcised. And the procedures which go with that must be done.
Now, in the political party, what is the process of baptism? Baptism is when either the local committee receives these people who have converted and baptises them – welcomes them in the Movement. That is the baptism as far as I am concerned politically. In some cases, this is done at the national level like what I did with the independents from Lango who came and signed a Memorandum of Understanding before me with the Secretary General Amama Mbabazi. We then informed the branches. If the converts have been received by the national chairman, or regional chairman or district chairman, the branch must be informed so that there is transparency. So that everybody knows what is happening and also become a party.
Therefore, there are two sides to the converts. First, they should renounce allegiance to their old party. Secondly, they should be received in a formal way by the NRM structures – the branch, or district chairman and national chairman with the knowledge of the branches – with information to the branches. In the guidelines, the electoral commission provided that even if you are not on the list of this voters’ register but you are known by the branch people to be a member and your name was left out either by mistake or negligently, then you should vote. But the branch should confirm that you are a member.
Or if you are a new member who has been received in the manner I have described already - received by either the branch or the other leaders like district chairman with the knowledge of the branch, or by the national chairman with the knowledge of the branch.
Therefore, I appeal to you to make sure that tomorrow’s elections are example of civility and calmness and civilisation. If there are any arguments, please channel them through the channels. They will be handled. If they are not handled by the people concerned, I will definitely handle them when they come to me.
I thank you very much.
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni yesterday issued a strong statement on the NRM party primaries, which were marred by chaos, violence, rigging and shortage of voting materials.
Museveni who is also the party chairman apologised to party members for the inconvenience and promised to investigate the problem.
He warned against vote rigging and violence. “I have heard that some people have tried to alter the election results. All these are criminal offences and you can be arrested for them and imprisoned. Therefore tomorrow when you go for voting, ensure that these problems are not there.â€Â
I greet you the people of Uganda. In particular, I greet the members of the National Resistance Movement. I wish to congratulate and thank the members of National Resistance movement who turned up on the 30th of August to vote in the NRM primaries.
You turned up in millions – in big numbers. You have shown the people of Uganda and the whole world the huge support the Movement enjoys in the country. I thank you, I salute you and I congratulate you.
Unfortunately, the administrative arrangements were not so good. You, therefore, ended up lining up for many hours and some of you could not vote on that day.
The elections had to be postponed – some of them to later dates and some of them to tomorrow the 4th September 2010. I am sorry about this inconvenience which was caused to you. We are studying the reasons why the Electoral Commission of the NRM did not provide the materials in time and also in enough quantities.
There seems to be a confluence or a combination of two problems. One problem is the irresponsibility of some of the leaders in the NRM who are so selfish. They don’t think about anything else other than themselves. These are the ones who complicate the work of for instance the NRM voters’ register.
You have heard complaints of NRM voters whose names were left out just because somebody did not support him or her previously.
You have heard attempts by some people to inflate – to put in names which are not there. We have had situations where senior leaders are biased against some members of the Movement.
Yet I have told all the leaders repeatedly that a senior leader should not take sides among his juniors. It should be the people to elect and not the leaders to elect.
I, as chairman of the NRM, am ready to work with anybody elected by members of the NRM as long as he is a member of the NRM. So, that was one problem – the selfishness of some of the leaders.
The other problem is the weaknesses in the Electoral commission which we are going to study and we see how to rectify.
Now that you are going to vote again tomorrow, I appeal to all concerned to avoid the mistakes which were noticed on the 30th August and the days subsequent to that. The ones who are voting tomorrow are the ones who have not voted. There are some districts which have not voted. These are the ones voting tomorrow and some of the other areas.
In particular, I would like to emphasise these points.
Point number one: you should know that to inflate deliberately the list of NRM members is a crime. You can even be arrested. Although this is an internal party election, but under the laws of Uganda you are not allowed to more or less commit forgery. If you are a registrar registering NRM members, you must register all the NRM members. You don’t add on, you don’t subtract. To do so is to commit a forgery.
It is also criminal to try and bribe voters. You can be arrested for that. The laws of Uganda do not allow that; even though this is an internal party election.
You can also be in trouble for using bad language in the elections.
You can also be in trouble for altering the election results. I have heard that some people have tried to alter the election results. All these are criminal offences and you can be arrested for them and imprisoned.
Therefore, tomorrow, when you go for voting, ensure that these problems are not there. And in order to ensure that this is done properly, you should ensure that all the votes are counted immediately after voting.
When the voting closes, the votes should be counted, announced, recorded and all the agents sign and the election officials. Then the rest is just adding up. If anybody tries to alter that, he will be discovered. But also, he will be in trouble with the law. He can go to jail. I would appeal to all of you not to involve yourselves in violence. There is no need for violence. If there is any problem, just complain. If you complain, the NRM election officials will take action. If they don’t, I will take action as the party leader. I have for instance dispatched an investigation team to a number of areas including Sembabule. So, if there is anybody playing games, we shall find him out and deal with him using the law or the constitution of the NRM.
So, there is no need for you to be violent or to even quarrel. If you are not happy with anything, just put your objection on paper and if the officials concerned don’t listen to you, through the channels, you can come up to me the chairman and we can solve this one.
Finally, there is the question of those people who say that people who convert from other parties and come to the NRM are not Movement people. This is a wrong position. The only thing is that the process of conversion from other parties to NRM should be properly verified. It is like religion. Suppose I am a Muslim and I want to convert to Christianity, I will not be considered to have converted to Christianity until I am baptised. Then I become a Christian and I stop being a Muslim. Or if I am a Christian and I want to become a Muslim, I must be circumcised. And the procedures which go with that must be done.
Now, in the political party, what is the process of baptism? Baptism is when either the local committee receives these people who have converted and baptises them – welcomes them in the Movement. That is the baptism as far as I am concerned politically. In some cases, this is done at the national level like what I did with the independents from Lango who came and signed a Memorandum of Understanding before me with the Secretary General Amama Mbabazi. We then informed the branches. If the converts have been received by the national chairman, or regional chairman or district chairman, the branch must be informed so that there is transparency. So that everybody knows what is happening and also become a party.
Therefore, there are two sides to the converts. First, they should renounce allegiance to their old party. Secondly, they should be received in a formal way by the NRM structures – the branch, or district chairman and national chairman with the knowledge of the branches – with information to the branches. In the guidelines, the electoral commission provided that even if you are not on the list of this voters’ register but you are known by the branch people to be a member and your name was left out either by mistake or negligently, then you should vote. But the branch should confirm that you are a member.
Or if you are a new member who has been received in the manner I have described already - received by either the branch or the other leaders like district chairman with the knowledge of the branch, or by the national chairman with the knowledge of the branch.
Therefore, I appeal to you to make sure that tomorrow’s elections are example of civility and calmness and civilisation. If there are any arguments, please channel them through the channels. They will be handled. If they are not handled by the people concerned, I will definitely handle them when they come to me.
I thank you very much.