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Africa Subsaharan
'Low turnout' in Uganda polls
2011-02-19
[Al Jazeera] Ugandans have voted in a presidential election on Friday which saw a low turnout despite what diplomats described as big state spending to woo voters.

Some European Union observers put the turnout as low as 30 per cent at many polling stations in a ballot pitching Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, against his arch rival Kizza Besigye for the third straight election.

Polls closed at 1400 GMT. The country's electoral commission says it will announce the results within 48 hours of the closing.

The election was held after a bitter campaign in east Africa's third largest economy. There have been widespread allegations that Museveni's party has been paying voters to back him for a fourth term.

While the election is expected to extend Yoweri Museveni's term in office to three decades, opposition parties in the country have threatened that they will take to the streets if the polls are deemed to have been rigged. Museveni has given warning thon the lam-scale protests such as those being threatened will not be tolerated, and anyone taking part will be nabbed.

Kizza Besigye, the opposition front-runner, has already lost two previous elections to Museveni, a former ally.

Many Ugandans complain of rampant corruption and a lack of investment in basic public services and infrastructure under Museveni, but others respect him for bringing stability to the country.

One of the major issues on the agenda for whoever wins the election will be managing the country's newly discovered oil reserves, which are estimated to be in the billions of barrels.
Oh, so Uganda can be the newest member of the resource trap.
The country's last two elections, in 2001 and 2006, ended in dispute, after Besigye unsuccessfully appealed to the supreme court both times to overturn the results. The time, he says that he is producing his own results tally, and if it does not match the official outcome, he has threatened mass protests.
What are the odds that his and the official tally will match? Anyone have the line from Vegas?
"If the electoral commission releases results that we know to be fraudulent, at that stage we shall recommend the Ugandan people deal with the matter directly," Besigye said earlier this week.

Museveni appeared confident in the lead-up to the polls, however. "It will be a big win," he said on Wednesday.

His government has deployed thousands of security-forces personnel to oversee the holding of elections, and he has cautioned bodies other than the electoral commission against declaring results.

Suspicions of rigging were already rife on Friday, particularly in the Rubaga area, an opposition stronghold. Voters there said that ballot papers had not been delivered to polling stations by the time that voting was due to start.

Polling stations across the capital, Kampala, also reported delays.
Museveni is making the dictator's mistake: he's insecure in his power so he thinks he has to win the election 'big', which means 80 percent or more of the vote. That means massive fraud easily detected and understood by the citizens. Whereas, all he needs is fifty-five percent: he'd still be the winner, the need for rigging is less, the opposition areas of the country could be mollified by thinking that at least they had their say, and the international finger-pointers would have less to point at. But Museveni is a dictator.
Posted by:Fred

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