Elizabeth Nantamu, Coordinator Communication and Information FHRI
In the just concluded electoral process for
the Presidential and Parliamentary race held on 18th February 2016 in
Uganda, the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni won with a little more than 60%
of the 9.2 million votes cast followed by his perennial rival Dr. Kizza
Besigye with about 35.3% votes according
to the Electoral Commission (EC).
Although Ugandans were largely calm and
peaceful during and after the elections, the country was under a very tense
atmosphere with the deployment of police and army personnel alongside a display
of security machinery almost everywhere in the country.
After another term of five years, the Election
Day started in a peaceful manner with enthusiastic voters strolling to their
polling stations early in the morning to make their voices heard on their future
leaders at the presidential and parliamentary positions through the ballot. The
electoral process that was fairly smooth had a 65% voter turnout. Unfortunately, there was a general delay of
opening polling stations which was stretched to late afternoon hours due to the
late arrival of the important election equipment especially in Kampala and
neighbouring districts. The opening of the stations at odd times of the day in
some stations made it impossible for citizens to cast their vote in time and
this was the beginning of the break down of the electoral process.
This was followed by the blocking of the cyber
communication of the social media platforms and the movement of on-line money
transactions using mobile phones, was another violation of freedom of expression
and access to information to Ugandans; a decision taken by the Uganda
Communications Commission.
