We shall win by defiance - Besigye
Dr Kizza Besigye arrives at the Rwakabengo health centre III at 10.46am yesterday. He was taken through biometrics recognition, given a ballot and later cast his vote at 10.51am.
PHOTO BY PEREZ RUMANZ
What you need to know:
Dr Besigye was a personal physician to President Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement party during the 1981-86 guerrilla war
RUKUNGIRI.
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party presidential candidate Kizza Besigye yesterday described the election as neither free nor fair and said the state had appropriated the Ugandans’ rights.
“The election exercise is not one that is free or fair any way. It can only get worse; it can’t get better. As I pointed out [during the campaigns], it is an exercise carried out entirely by [Electoral Commission] officials over whom we have no participation in their selection, we have no participation in their management, it’s a highly one-sided show; for that we are fighting to assert our will,” Besigye said shortly after casting his ballot at Rwakabengo Health Centre II in Rukungiri Municipality.
“We very clearly said this is an election we are going to win by defiance. Defiance is, in fact, another word for resistance. When we were struggling for our rights [in the 1980s], we formed a resistance movement, that resistance must go on until there is freedom.”
Dr Besigye was a personal physician to President Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement party during the 1981-86 guerrilla war.
“Unfortunately the National Resistance Movement still uses the word resistance even when they are the ones being resisted,” Dr Besigye said. “So our defiance campaign is a resistance campaign actually and it’s intended to make sure that the citizens regain their power,” he added.
Arrival
Dr Besigye docked at the polling station at 10.46am, accompanied by Rukungiri Municipality MP Roland Mugume Kaginda, FDC party’s national secretary for mobilisation Ingrid Turinawe and district chairperson Viriginia Kyarugahe.
He lined up like other voters, had his finger prints read on the biometric voter verification system device and was issued the ballot papers to choose a president, MP for Rukungiri Municipality and district Woman legislator.
In what contrasts the essence of the secret ballot, Dr Besigye held the ballot paper aloft and showed it to other voters in the queue to prove he had ticked his name.
“So you think I was going to vote for another person?” Besigye mused.
The FDC candidate returned to the capital Kampala immediately after voting to monitor the party’s vote tally centre at its Najjanankumbi headquarters outside Kampala.
