Regional
Museveni’s NRM taken to court over voter fraud: Andrew Mwenda Playing mediation behind the scenes.
The opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) of Robert Kyagulanyi commonly known as Bobi Wine has filed legal challenge in Uganda’s Supreme Court against election results of the January 14, 2021 Presidential election, asking the court to cancel the results and repeat the elections.
“There was outright ballot-stuffing, there was intimidation of NUP
agents and supporters, some were arrested on the eve of the election, there was
pre-ticking of ballots. We want the poll cancelled and repeated,” said George
Musisi, lawyer for Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP), on Monday. Museveni dismissed allegations of
vote-rigging, calling the election “the most cheating-free” since independence
from Britain in 1962.
Reliable sources have told The Great Lakes Eye Reporter, that the
outspoken journalist cum ‘politician’ Andrew Mwenda has been deployed by
Museveni to reach out to Bobi Wine and convince him to withdraw the voter fraud
court case in exchange for a secret agreement on how he can work with
Museveni’s government. Among the issues Museveni promised are to release Bobi
Wine’s supporters who were arrested during the violent campaigns, and a package
of other “goodies” would follow. The same sources informed how Andrew Mwenda
has met with Bobi Wine twice since he was released from house arrest, in a bid
to discuss the deal. During the
formation of NUP, Andrew Mwenda was seen playing political theatrics wearing
NUP red-cap and pretending to register as NUP member, pick nomination papers as
a presidential candidate to challenge Bobi Wine.
Political analysts interpreted Mwenda’s moves at the time, as
embedding himself as Museveni’s mole within NUP early enough, which did not
work out according to plan. Later, Mwenda was seen on television talk shows
dismissing Bobi Wine as incompetent to rule Uganda. Medard Sseggona one of the lawyers for the NUP said that any
election Museveni participates in can never be a peaceful election and can never
be free and fair. “We do not want Museveni participating in any future
election”, Sseggona told reporters outside the Supreme Court.
NUP lawyers allege that "soldiers invaded polling
stations" and stuffed ballot boxes with pre-ticket votes. Electoral
registers were tampered with at other locations. Museveni cannot be left to
cheat and steal scot-free.” Bobi Wine was put under house arrest for two weeks
after the electoral commission declared Museveni the winner.
The Uganda electoral commission declared President Museveni the
winner with 59% of the votes against 35% of Bobi wine, in a highly disputed and
violent election that left at least 54
people dead. Security forces used excessive force to brutalize and torture
members of the opposition seen as tactic to intimidate and stop them from
participating in the election.
Human rights organizations accused Museveni’s government of
widespread violence and human rights abuses during the electoral campaigns.
Helen Epstein, author of the book “Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the
War on Terror,” once told Associated Press Reporter that, "Museveni has always been brutal, but he's always
had to play this game with the West, so that he continues to get support.
Over
the years, losing opposition candidates have tried to challenge Museveni’s
controversial win in courts of law without success. It is therefore, highly
expected that the Supreme Court will dismiss the case as lacking substantial
evidence to challenge the results. High court judges are not neutral just like
the electoral commission. They are all appointed by Museveni and they cannot
rule against him.
In
Buganda we would say (Enkima tesala gwa kibira),
translated as, “you cannot ask a monkey
to condemn the forest where it lives.” However, NUP will have gone through the
legal requirements and put the mark on the record to show that the 2021 elections were not free and fair. The Supreme Court must rule on the petition
within 45 days.
Independent
election analyst Crispin Kaheru said that "The electoral jurisprudence
narrows an election process to votes, numbers and statistics on declaration day
making election petitions very difficult." By
law, Bobi Wine must prove to the court that any alleged irregularities affected
the outcome of the election "to a substantial manner" -- a much
higher burden of proof than in civil cases. Ugandan courts do not "look at
elections as a process but only at events on polling day and declaration day,
which makes it very difficult to prove the substantial effect of fraud
wrongdoing," Kaheru said.
Security forces are still deployed in
the capital city Kampala with soldiers on armored personnel carriers and Police
patrolling in the streets. The deputy
inspector-general of police, Major General Paul Lokech, said the additional
security was due to protests threatened by elements aligned to the NUP, a claim
refuted by the party Secretary-General Lewis David Rubongoya saying their
party advocates for a "peaceful change of
Museveni's government, and not through violence".
Bobi
Wine's National Unity Platform (NUP) won most of the parliamentary seats in
central region grabbing a total of 56 MPs out of more than 500, making it the
largest opposition party in parliament. Twenty-five members of cabinet, allied
to Museveni’s NRM Party including long serving Vice-President Edward Ssekandi,
lost their parliamentary seats to NUP youthful and first time entrants in the
parliamentary race. This was the biggest
loss ever suffered by the ruling party in three decades, which is an indication
of voter fatigue and need for change.
Museveni’s
popularity and winning percentages have over the years gone down like a slow puncture; from 68% in 2011, to 60.6% in 2016 and 58.6% this year, 2021.