| Opposition growing stronger - Museveni |
| SIMON KASYATE & FRANK NYAKAIRU |
| Kampala PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has conceded that opposition against his 20-year rule is growing, although he blamed it on non-political factors. Museveni, who was declared winner of the February 23 presidential election with 59% of the vote against FDC leader Kizza Besigyes 37%, was speaking in an interview with BBCs Julian Marshal. The Presidents win was 10 percentage points lower than his 2001 victory against Dr Besigye, who received 28% of the vote then. In 1996, Museveni received 75.5% of the vote against DP leader Paul Ssemogereres 22.3%. Yes, there is an increase in the opposition vote, a little bit, but I know, there are also distorting factors, the President said. He said the drop in his political support could be accounted for by non-political but organisational factors. Remember, this is a percentage of valid votes, Museveni said. There are some distortions. What about the ones (votes) that were invalidated? On Sunday, while addressing his first press conference since he was declared winner, Museveni said, The only change I have seen in this recent election has been the Teso region, where we got much less votes than we did last time. Museveni lost to Besigye in three Teso districsts of Katakwi, Soroti and Kumi, which he won in the 2001 elections. He also lost in the new district of Amuria. But he said, The strength of the Movement is roughly the same in the whole country. The organisational factors the President blamed for his dwindling support included inadequate voter education and the unexpected rains on voting day. For instance there were 300,000 spoilt votes which is 4% of all the votes cast, he said. I am reliably informed that most of those spoilt votes were our votes. Somebody instead of ticking in the box, they would tick on our symbol or tick even on my face because when we were campaigning we were telling them, you mark the man with a hat. The President added: I was telling the Electoral Commission that it is very clear that this man wanted to vote for the man with a hat so much that he even put the tick on his face, so why would you disqualify this? However, the opposition said Musevenis victory was a result of the unlevelled political playing field ahead of the elections, and widespread irregularities on polling day. Besigye has rejected the results declared by the Electoral Commission, describing them as outrageous. Most election observers said in their preliminary reports that while the polling itsel f went on without major incidents, the pre-election political landscape was not conducive to a free and fair election. But the President urged his opponents to accept the results and prepare to face the people in 2011. Museveni did not attribute his poor performance in the Acholi sub-region to the 20-year insurgency there, which has left millions of people living in camps. He blamed his loss on the regions political elite whom he accused of misleading the people. He said, They have been telling the people there that the NRM did a wrong thing to defeat the dictatorship of (late Milton) Obote and (late Idi) Amin, he said, but also it could be that our own cadres are weak and they are not able to explain to the ordinary people about the justness of our fight against those dictatorships. Museveni added, They are always vulnerable to liars like Besigye. This is the third time they have done it and they have of course lost. I therefore think they will learn. They are not bad people but they have got bad leaders. Asked to comment on the failure of several of his Cabinet ministers to make it back to Parliament, Museveni said it was democracy at work. If you dont maintain a very close connection to the people, then the people will vote you out, he said. However, the Movement has a huge number of MPs elected, maybe some of them new people, but there is no problem at all. The NRM won more than 190 seats in the new multiparty Parliament. |
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