Presidential Elections in Uganda Marred by Procedural Irregularities and Opposition Suppression
Authors: Justin Toh, with edits and title by Sophie Chiasson
The 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda have been criticized for failing to uphold democratic standards set out in domestic and international law.
According to Uganda’s Electoral Commission, incumbent candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni won the February 18th election with 60.62% of the vote. The runner-up candidate, retired colonel Dr. Warren Kizza Besigye Kifefe, came in second with 35.61%, followed by former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi with 1.39%. The remaining four candidates each secured less than 1% of the vote.
Opposition figures and civil society observers have roundly criticized the election procedures as unfair and demanded the release of tallying records.
President Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) rose to power in 1986 after overthrowing Milton Obote in a guerrilla bush war. He has remained President of Uganda in the thirty years since.
In 2005, the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda was amended to abolish a presidential two-term limit that would have required Museveni to step down. Although the amendment also removed limits on opposition parties to facilitate multiparty elections, the NRM remains functionally integrated into state institutions. Critics have decried the lack of partisan independence within the Electoral Commission, citing repeated allegations of vote rigging.
Election Defects
Although polling stations were meant to open at 7am,delayed deliveries of voting materials forced voting to begin behind schedule. In some locations, polls opened six hours late. Many simply left after several hours of waiting. Notably,many of these stations were located in opposition strongholds like Kampala, where 65.75% of voters supported Besigye.
Delays disproportionately affected women, who bear traditional domestic duties, and persons with inflexible work commitments. The Women’s Situation Room, which monitors Ugandan women’s voting rights, reported receiving nearly six hundred complaints after the polls closed.
In response to the delays, polling stations were supposed to be extended to 7pm. However, some stations still closed at the original 4pm deadline, and stations that remained open reportedly closed at inconsistent times.
Additionally, according to independent news outlet The Daily Monitor, election tallies apparently excluded ballots from 1787 polling stations at the time results were declared. Those stations represent just over one million votes. Again, regions with strong opposition support were disproportionately affected. In Besigye’s home district of Rukungiri, only three of 276 polling stations were reportedly counted, although the Electoral Commission now says its final results incorporate ballots from 274 Rukungiri stations.
Outright fraud has been alleged as well. The NRM was accused of distributing eighteen million hoes to secure votes in the north, and missing names in voter registries prevented some voters from casting ballots.
Rumours of ballot-stuffing abound. At least eighty-one polling stations reported 100% turnout (most of which also reported 100% support for Museveni), though they represent too few votes to overturn Museveni’s victory. Third-place candidate Amama Mbabazi further claims that the stations’ Biometric Voter Verification Kits could only have plausibly registered 73% of the voters reported in Electoral Commission tallies.
Moreover, social media and mobile money transfers were temporarily shut down on voting days.
Foreign observers also criticized intensified police and military presence during elections, voicing concern that security forces intimidated and harassed voters and journalists.
Opposition Arrests
During the election, security forces apprehended presidential candidate Dr. Warren Kizza Besigye Kifefe. Besigye ostensibly confronted police while attempting to show journalists a vote-rigging operation in a suburban house.
Besigye is the founder and former leader of the opposition party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). He contested and lost in Uganda’s 2001, 2006, and 2011 elections.
Since his arrest, police have confined Besigye to his home. No charges have been laid. Besigye attempted to leave on the 22nd and 23rd of February, but was simply apprehended again.
Police justify Besigye’s house arrest on the grounds that he is planning to demonstrate for the release of tallying forms without government permission. Per 2013’s controversial Public Order Management Act (POMA), all demonstrations must be declared three to fifteen days in advance and approved by police in order to divert traffic and establish police security.
On February 22nd, police “evacuated” FDC members from their headquarters. The FDC claims about three hundred members have been arrested since election day.
Arrests of opposition members are a regular feature of Ugandan politics. Security forces routinely detain prominent critical political figures for short periods of time to disrupt campaign or protest efforts.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights additionally reported that other prominent politicians were arrested, including presidential candidates Amama Mbabazi and Abed Bwanika. However, news on the circumstances and number of these arrests is both incomplete and inconsistent, and local media claim that Mbabazi’s movements were not restricted.
Ugandan Constitutional Law
The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda states that all political and civil organizations must conform to democratic principles. Those principles explicitly include equal access to leadership positions of all levels, and representation of social diversity in government. Chapter Four of Uganda’s Constitution enumerates fundamental human rights. Relevant rights include the right to assembly (explicitly including peaceful demonstration; article 29(a)), freedom of expression (article 29(1)(a)), and freedom of conscience and religion (article 29(1)(b)).
Many of these rights are echoed in Uganda’s international agreements, including the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Union’s African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
Challenging the Election Results
Third-place candidate Amama Mbabazi has submitted a petition challenging the results. The petition, filed with security for costs on the March 1st deadline and amended on March 7th, cites forty-three separate irregularities. The Supreme Court will return its ruling by March 31st.
Under article 104 of the Constitution, “any candidate dissatisfied with the election may take the matter to the Supreme Court within ten days after the declaration of the results.” Section 59 of the Presidential Elections Act elaborates further. The Supreme Court of Uganda must rule on any challenge within thirty days, at which time it can dismiss the petition, declare a different result, or annul the elections. Annulment can only result if a candidacy was invalid, if a candidate committed certain offences, or if electoral irregularities substantially affected the results. The Supreme Court may also order a recount while investigating the case.
Besigye previously filed petitions following the 2001 and 2006 elections. Both times, a divided Supreme Court found that irregularities occurred, but that the irregularities did not substantially affect the results. The FDC’s current leader, General Mugisha Muntu, stated that Besigye had also planned to file a petition but could not while subject to government hostility.
Police Response to Criticisms
Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura released a statement denouncing speculation and misinformation in election media coverage. Kayihura asserted that Besigye’s situation is not a house arrest, saying that Besigye can access his lawyers and political affiliates (despite reports of selective and limited access). He denied any police violence against the FDC and claimed Besigye had been free to challenge the results.
Kayihura further asserted opposition agents monitored all voting and tallying, and that the FDC could have received a copy of the results when they were declared.
The statement also blames Besigye’s supporters for persistent violence against police and NRM supporters during multiple illegal protests, as well as a plot to illegally declare results before the end of polling. Kayihura further noted that article 43 of the Constitution limits rights insofar as they contradict the public interest.
Article 43(1) of the Constitution does set out limits on rights, although article 43(2) states that “public interest” shall not include “political persecution” or “detention without trial.”
International Response
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement criticizing excessive force and unfair arrests by security forces. The thirteen-nation Commonwealth Observer Group also reiterated concerns about Kampala polling station delays, attributing deficiencies to corruption and low credibility from the Electoral Commission. The European Union Election Observer Mission, consisting of ten analysts and thirty observers, also condemned opposition arrests and called for the Electoral Commission to release scanned copies of the result declaration forms online.
US Department of State deputy spokesman Mark Toner congratulated Ugandans for voting peacefully. Nonetheless, Toner’s statement cites various defects in the election process and urges the NRM to take corrective action. US Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned President Museveni to voice these concerns personally. Both EU and US delegates were permitted to visit Besigye’s residence on February 27 despite access denials to local politicians.
However, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has taken a much less critical tone. The Ministry congratulated Ugandans on the elections, stating that African observers indicated a calm, open election free of significant violations.
For his part, President Museveni has dismissed criticism, saying, “I told those Europeans… I don’t need lectures from anybody.”
This article was published as part of the Osgoode chapter of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR) media series, which aims to promote an awareness of international human rights issues.