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2011 Uganda Elections and Results Unfold - Final Countdown
by Joseph Ernest February 18, 2011
ELECTION UPDATE February 20, 2011
The Uganda Electoral Commission has declared Yoweri Museveni the winner of the 2011 election with 68 percent (5,428,369 votes), while challenger Kizza Besigye had 26 percent (2,064,963 votes), and Norbet Mao had 147,708 votes.
Newscast Media -- The eagerly anticipated 2011 Uganda elections have taken place with Ugandans deciding in whose hands their future lies. All top tier candidates believe they will win. The aftermath of this election will highly depend on whether the voters and candidate believe it was a free and fair election. The opposition has said if there is any foul play, the results will not be decided in the courts, that it would be the court of public opinion that would decide.
Candidate Yoweri Museveni and Norbert Mao cast their votes, however, reports from the Daily Monitor newspaper say that upon arriving at the polling station, candidate Kizza Besigye was shocked to find his name missing. (pop-up)
Incidents of voter intimidation and irregularities are also being reported by the same newspaper in this article. (pop-up)
Incidents of violence were also reported by the state-owned New Vision in which scuffles broke out between voters and law enforcement. The paper reports that up to 80 people were arrested.
Turnout was allegedly at an all-time low and Al Jazeera reports that European Union observers estimate that only 30 percent of voters actually showed up to vote. (pop-up). News outlets in Uganda however, have the voter turnout at 58 percent. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow reporting from Kampala said the voting has gone well in most places but in eastern Uganda there were clashes between two opposing candidates in one of the parliamentary constituencies.
"Supporters of the minister of defence and supporters of her opponent clashed in and around the town of Mbale. Two people are confirmed dead and up to 30 injured, including a journalist. The military has been deployed to quell the situation."
European Union (EU) observers said that an unnecessary military presence on voting day had created an uneasy,
intimidatory ambience. They say the vote was undermined in a number of areas.
"The electoral process was marred by avoidable and we underline the word avoidable, administrative and logistical
failures as an umbrella of many failures for various administrative and logistical ones which then led to an
unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disenfranchised," Edward Scicluna, head of the EU observer
team, told reporters.
Museveni was favored to win, but people can only speculate as to what the aftermath will be. Several international observers are on the ground to compile reports about the voting process.Add or Read Comments>>
Related article: Profiles of 2011 Uganda presidential candidates
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