Uganda’s new president says opposition must obey

Katy Pownall

RWAKITURA, Uganda — Uganda’s newly re-elected President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday that his opponents had no right to challenge his election victory and that they should obey the country’s democratic choice.

On Saturday, the Electoral Commission declared Museveni winner. The president, who has held power for more than 20 years, won with 59.28 percent of the votes counted from 99 percent of polling stations.

His strongest opponent, Kizza Besigye, had 37.36 percent of the vote, according to the Electoral Commission. Besigye has rejected those results.

“The only people who can change that (the results) would be the courts,” Museveni told journalists at his ranch in Rwakitura in southwestern Uganda. “They (the Forum for Democratic Change) are spoiling their record. They should be calm and obey the democratic voice of the people of Uganda.”

On Saturday, Besigye rejected the official results of Thursday’s election and said so far the tallies collected by his agents at the country’s 19,786 polling stations showed him with 49.1 percent and Museveni with 47.1 percent.

The Forum for Democratic Change would wait until their own tally was complete before deciding what step to take, he said, adding the count would take several days.

Museveni said that he had four priorities during the next term as president: rapidly building up infrastructure, the full commercialization of Uganda’s agricultural sector, more industrialization to create employment and to work towards the political integration of East Africa.

Besigye told journalists Saturday the campaign was “marked by gross unfairness occasioned by the State which we did not consider to be an environment conducive to the free and fair expression of the Ugandan electorate.”

Observers said the country’s first multi-party election in 25 years was affected by an unfair campaign and voting irregularities.

Museveni last year lifted a presidential two-term limit so he could run again. A European Union observers’ mission criticized him last Friday for using all the resources of the government to win, and said that the vote was an improvement on past ballots but still had problems.

The results of 284 parliamentary races, also held Thursday, were to be announced later.

After Museveni was declared victor, his supporters celebrated in the streets, while police fired tear gas and bullets to chase off stone-throwing protesters outside opposition headquarters.

Assuman Mugenyi, the police spokesman, said militant elements in the opposition party had planned to stage riots and the police were forced to disperse them.

(Associated Press)