Letter to The President on Election Rigging

His Excellency, President Y.K. Museveni

P. O. Box 25497, Kampala


UGANDA

Dear Mr. President:

RE: RESPONSE TO YOUR LETTER ON ELECTION RIGGING IN UGANDA, 1961 - 2014

Reference is made to your letter dated 25^th May 2014 [1] on ‘election rigging in Uganda, 1961 – 2014’ which was widely carried by the media.  Your letter made special reference to the allegedly “stolen” Luweero Woman MP by-election held on 22^nd May 2014 and went on to question the credibility of elections in Uganda and the independence of the current Electoral Commission. Whereas the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) observed the Luweero Woman MP by-election, we take exception to the allegations around vote rigging carried in your letter.  Our team of observers who monitored the Luweero by-election noted a number of issues that your letter doesn’t generally seem to address.  Issues around missing names on the voters register, heavy police clampdown on opposition rallies as well as vote-buying especially during the campaign period. The myriad of electoral challenges in Uganda, some of which you highlight call for the passage of substantive electoral reforms to restore trust of all stakeholders.

Going by the language and content of your letter, CCEDU wishes to acknowledge and appreciate your new stance on reforming the electoral system in Uganda.  We are very optimistic that you are equally interested in and committed to ensuring that among other things, the broader electoral reform proposals that have been on the table since 2005 are considered and passed in order to remedy what you described as ‘a collapsed system’ and avert scenarios where people who should not have been elected are elected because of ‘sectarian intoxication’ or because of ‘cheating’. 

CCEDU remains the broadest active civil society coalition on issues of elections in Uganda, bringing together over 700 member organizations spread across the country. CCEDU has since its formation in 2009 worked towards promoting a social and political system that enhances fair, equitable and transparent electoral processes. In the aftermath of the 2011 general elections, CCEDU developed a Citizens’ Electoral Reform Agenda. The agenda calls for: the restoration of presidential term limits; putting in place a clean and credible voters register; instituting mechanisms to guarantee the independence and credibility of the Electoral Commission; streamlining the role of security forces in elections; the introduction of campaign spending caps among others. These and many more reform proposals are being fronted by voices across the civic and political spectrum.  Your Excellency, recent opinion polls also indicate that it is the hope of many Ugandans that sooner rather than later, the government and the opposition political parties will dialogue and agree on the proposed electoral reforms with the aim of safeguarding electoral processes to ensure that the 2016 general elections are free and fair.

Press release on Ngobi’s execution in China.

On the 24^th June 2014 China executed Ngobi Ham Andrew one of the many Ugandans held on death row for drug related offence.  This is the second execution of a Ugandan by Chinese government in 2014 and its only one month since the last execution of Omar Ddamulira.

Execution was carried out just a month after his sentence had been confirmed by the highest court in China with only a five days’ notice issued to his relatives of the intention to execute Ngobi. With a few days’ notice it was impossible for the convict to challenge the legitimacy of his execution violating his right to appeal the execution.

As a universal trend toward abolition of the death penalty is overwhelming, China, which retains the death penalty and carries out executions regularly, is now a peculiar country and becoming more and more isolated from the international community.  Moreover it is 11 years since Uganda’s last execution, qualifying it a de-facto moratorium and a clear indication of the increasing respect on the right to life.

The penalty of death is the ultimate punishment which violates right to life, the most fundamental human right and whether to exercise the penalty or not can never remain a domestic issue.

Foundation for Human Rights Initiative strongly condemns these executions and will continue its struggle to abolish death penalty and to ensure that Ugandans committing offences in retentionist states are repatriated to serve their sentences in Uganda.