Can EC deliver free and fair polls in 2016?

Opposition fears are largely grounded in the composition of the Electoral Commission (EC), which they insist is filled with appendages of the ruling party and thus, cannot be trusted with supervising a free and fair election.
In 2009, Mr Museveni re-appointed Mr Badru Kiggundu to lead EC for a second and last seven-year term, amid stiff resistance from opposition politicians and donor groups.
Basing on a 2006 Supreme Court ruling, they contended that the election run by this team in 2006 was adjudged to be rife with irregularities.

Their term ends in 2015, one year before Ugandans head to the polls and it remains to be seen whether Mr Museveni will extra-legally renew their term after controversially doing so with Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki.

Former Supreme Court Justice George Kanyeihamba, who was part of the panel that heard the 2006 election petition, wrote in his autobiography that court had found the fairness of the 2006 elections compromised by bribery, intimidation and violence. The court, however, ruled that the rigging did not affect the result of the election in a substantial manner to warrant a re-run.

That Supreme Court case is beefed up by a plethora of high court rulings where EC officials have been faulted at both parliamentary and local council levels for conducting elections that do not comply with provisions of the Constitution, the Parliamentary Elections Act and the Electoral Commission Act.

Illegalities
In the Joy Kabatsi vs Hanifa Kawooya case over the Sembabule Woman MP seat, the EC was faulted for abandoning the role of appointing presiding officers to the Foreign Affairs minister, Mr Sam Kutesa, who in turn allegedly vouched for NRM supporters to rig out Ms Kabatsi.

This litany of misdemeanors has given fodder to opposition politicians and civil society activists who insist the current technocrats at the EC cannot be trusted with a fair election.

Former FDC president Kizza Besigye was the first opposition leader to raise a red flag about the possibility of the polls being rigged way before actual polling day, citing the prevailing circumstances as evidence. He has since vowed not to take part in an election organised by the current EC leadership.

“We are supposed to be under a multi-party system where all political parties have equal opportunities and are treated similarly, but the reality is that the NRM is a party state like it was during the Movement system. There is no parity in competition,” Dr Besigye says.

He argues that “elections held under the current electoral system are inherently rigged”.

Mr Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister for the Presidency, insists Mr Museveni will continue appointing all those organs because it is his constitutional mandate to do so.
Dr Besigye is a former close confidante of Mr Museveni who participated in the 1981-86 bush war that ushered this government to power but later fell out and has thrice unsuccessfully contested against his erstwhile comrade.

“Political parties now compete with State institutions. LCs is still the Movement. The police, security organisations and the military still function as appendages of the Movement. UPDF has not in practice changed from being a military wing of the NRM which it was formally,” Dr Besigye says.

Other ambitions
Dr Besigye has since unequivocally indicated that he will not participate in the 2016 polls but will instead use other means “to dismantle the dictatorship”.

Mr Tumwebaze down-played Dr Besigye’s threats, suggesting that they are born out of frustrations of “failing to win sustainable support and a political geography in the whole country”. “That has been his rehearsed story since 2001 to cover up his failure to capture new grounds.

When he was winning in the north, was the EC rigging in his favour? When the opposition won in Kasese and Bugisu, was the EC rigging for them? Those are excuses intended to create sympathy that he comes up with after failing to substantially win the confidence of the voters,” Mr Tumwebaze says.

Interference of security agencies in the electoral processes was the gist of both the 2001 and 2006 petitions. In the run-up to 2011 polls, the opposition unsuccessfully demanded for a code of conduct for security agencies to regulate their activities during election time.

DP President Norbert Mao says the electoral body is filled with “failed politicians” who were strongly affiliated to the ruling NRM in their days of active political practice and have not shed off their inclinations to the party.

“The EC is full of failed NRM politicians right from the secretary who is a failed politician in Lwemiyaga to commissioners Stephen Ongaria who is a failed politician in Tororo and (Tomasi Sisye) Kiryapawo who is a failed politician in Budaka. The chairperson is a failed NRM politician in Rubaga,” Mr Mao says.

EC secretary Sam Rwakoojo, who according to the EC website, heads the management of the team and has a hands-on approach on the supervising of elections, lost the Lwemiyaga County seat to Theodore Sekikubo in 2001 and was “compensated” by the government with an appointment to the Commission.

Commissioners Kiryapawo and Ongaria were MPs for Budaka County and Tororo Municipality respectively, before joining the body.

The EC, Mr Mao adds, should not “only be independent but must be seen to be independent”.
In articles titled: “Reinventing Uganda: Agenda for Radical Renewal”, published in the Sunday Monitor, Uganda Peoples Congress president Olara Otunnu argues that discussions about the 2016 polls should focus on a “robust campaign for a new electoral system that can ensure genuinely free and fair elections”.

Uganda Federal Alliance president Beti Kamya, who contested the 2011 election and scooped fourth position with only 52,782 (about 0.66 per cent) of the votes, says the powers of the President should be clipped to deny whoever holds that office a stronghold on all the centres of power.

“We (UFA) have always said that because the Constitution gives the President a lot of powers to appoint the EC chairperson, the Inspector General of Police, the Governor Bank of Uganda, those structures combined give the President an unfair advantage over others,” Ms Kamya says.

But if the status quo remains, the current EC is not disbanded and no code of conduct for security agencies is put in place, what is the likely plan B of the opposition?

Dr Besigye, thrice the closest challenger of Mr Museveni, says he intends “to challenge the fraudulent State right now, and not to wait for 2016”.

“We shall not stop activism until this fraudulent State is completely de-legitimised and disentangled so that we can have a transition to a State that can organise free and fair elections,” he said. He has, however, consistently ruled out the use of arms, explaining that guns would breed another dictatorship.
When he stepped down as FDC president in 2012, two years before the expiry of his term, he vowed to concentrate on political activism.

He has since been the figurehead of political protests organised by pressure groups Activists for Change, later renamed For God and My Country against inflation, corruption and abuse of rights by the state.

Mr Mao hints at the possibility of staging a boycott if electoral reforms are not put in place to pave way for a free vote. “There is no point in going into an election whose results have already been pre-determined. We are not looking for political martyrdom but we want to liberate our country. A boycott is clearly something we cannot rule out if we do not get minimum reforms,” Mr Mao says.

The suggestion is echoed by Mr Otunnu who, in the run-up to the 2011 polls, unsuccessfully rallied fellow opposition presidential candidates, under the Interparty Coalition (IPC), to boycott the polls if the EC was not disbanded to make ground for the appointing of an Independent commission. He would later pull out of the coalition and personally snub the casting of his vote.

“In the event that Museveni/ NRM rejects the demands for overhauling the electoral system, my position remains the same as in 2010/11 Ugandans should not accompany Museveni/NRM in yet another sham elections in 2016. In all this, Ugandans must realise that there is no magic wand that will miraculously deliver us from this fascist rule,” Dr Otunnu wrote.

But what would be the effects of an election with only Mr Museveni contesting? Despite denting the credibility and legitimacy of the winner, it would border on the establishment of a one-party state, which is illegal under the Constitution.

EC undeterred
But the EC remains adamant and undaunted. Mr Jotham Taremwa, the EC spokesperson, says because the President-the appointing authority of the EC is a chairman of the NRM, that has been the source of skepticism.
“It so happens that the President is also the chairman of one of the political parties and the people who are agitated about the composition of the Electoral Commission are linking the President and the political party to his nomination of the EC,” Mr Jotham says.

He says the EC is doing all it can, based on the Road Map to 2016 it unveiled in May and will keep opposition politicians on board so that “they do not have grounds to boycott”, adding that if they do, “they will have betrayed their supporters and political parties”.

Changing faces of EC

1995-1997
Steven Akabway (Chairperson)
Flora Nkurukenda (Deputy)
Charles Owor
Margaret Sekajja
Philip Idro
Syda Bumba
Aziz Kasujja
1997-2002
Hajji Aziz K. Kasujja (Chairperson),
Flora Nkurukenda (Deputy Chairperson)
Ted Wamusi
Mary Maitum
Robert Kitariko
Nassanga Miiro
Charles Owiny
2002 todate:
Badru Kiggundu (Chairperson)
Margaret Magoba (Deputy Chairperson)
Commissioners
Tom Buruku
Stephen Ongaria
Jenny Okello
Joseph Biribonwa
Tomasi Sisye Kiryapawo (From 2006)
Sam Rwakoojo, Secretary of the Commission
Source: Electoral Commission website

Election boycotts in Africa

Zimbabwe: In 2008, the Movement for Democratic Change leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, boycotted the second presidential re-run having been defeated, but failed to marshal the required 50 per cent in the first round. The boycott forced President Robert Mugabe into a coalition government amid pressure from the international community and regional African leaders.
Djibouti: On April 8, 2011, Djibouti held its third Presidential election since gaining independence in 1977 which saw incumbent President Ismail Omar Guelleh extend his rule to a third term in a poll boycotted by the major opposition candidates alleging irregularities, intimidation and violence. Only two names appeared on the ballot paper.
Mauritania: Threats by the opposition to boycott the October 12 polls were welcomed by an announcement of a six-week postponement of its elections. The opposition politicians had insisted they would not participate in what they called an “electoral masquerade”.

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I will not resign, says EC chairperson

The chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mr Badru Kiggundu, has resisted calls to step down, saying the body was committed to deliver free, fair and transparent elections in 2016.

“Why should I resign? A problem takes a human mind to solve. Are you (who is asking me to resign) perfect? I do not know. Do not ask me to resign. This is my country. I love it like you do,” Mr Kiggundu said.

He was responding to comments by youth and civil society members in Mbarara District at the weekend who criticised him for presiding over a compromised electoral body with incompetent staff.

The activists argued that a free election will remain a pipe dream if the current EC team remains in place because it is subjective to the government and appointing authority.

“There has always been complaints of the commission being partisan. I urge you to step down because of the negative perception the public has about you,” Mr Patrick Aroma, UPC national youth leader, said.
However, Mr Kiggundu advised them to push for reforms in the electoral laws, adding that they should first internalise the law and look at other players before they heap blame on EC staff.

“Money (to facilitate our work) is not with us. If I am told it is in the State House, I will go there and get it if that is what the laws say. We do not make (electoral) laws, it is Parliament. If you want to change, change the law,” Mr Kiggundu said.

The EC boss also said that in 2006, he was asked by the Attorney General not to nominate Dr Kizza Besigye as a presidential candidate when he was on remand in Luzira but he went ahead nominated him.
A research commissioned by Uganda Youth Network shows that youth are not adequately involved in democratic governance of their communities because of lack of civic education and some are bought out because of love for money.
Mr Kiggundu urged the youth to desist from looking at short term gains like bribes.

By Alfred Tumushabe