Ugandan opposition alarmed by Sudanese support to Museveni
Feb 8, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan opposition politicians have expressed fears that an influx of foreign nationals from Sudan into areas that, coincidentally, also have newly gazetted polling stations, will undermine the integrity of the elections, the Nairobi based The EastAfrican reported.
“We know that President Yoweri Museveni wants to exploit his close links with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army to rig the election,” claimed Gulu Municipality and Democratic Party chief campaigner Norbert Mao. “With the recent partisan conduct of Mrs Rebecca Garang, we don’t need to guess who the SPLA men will vote for.”
Rebecca Garang, widow of former Sudanese vice president John Garang, has appeared at Museveni’s rallies, raising concerns that she is rallying the support of Sudanese living in Uganda for the Movement. Museveni is the presidential candidate for the National Resistance Movement.
Transparency International, which ismonitoring the polls, has also questioned why Mrs Garang and other officials of foreign countries have openly shown support for a particular political group in the elections.
“What is the agenda of foreign countries sending officials to identify with a political group?” asked Charles Mubbale, the international anti-corruption body’s country director. “There should be a dividing line between a political group and a government. We feel concerned when we see Mrs Garang on Museveni’s campaign trail in areas where there are Sudanese refugees.”
Reports of an influx of Congolese into Uganda from the west have also raised concern. They have been settled in Kabale and Nakivale refugee settlements.
Opposition sources last week told The EastAfrican that Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda – who reportedly also voted in 2001 – were being given voters’ cards. They also claimed that SPLA men have been registered in the districts of Gulu, Adjumani, Yumbe, Koboko and Kitgum.
Mr Mao insisted that outside of the north, thousands of SPLA men and Sudanese refugees have been registered in Kiryandongo refugee settlement in Masindi district.
“We know that they have been registered. All that remains is to give them voters’ cards,” the DP chief campaigner said. “We have lodged complaints with the EC, but it is afraid even to comment. The new polling stations are dubious; they are created for ghost voters in the concentration camps. We have had ghost soldiers in this country and so we are going to have ghost voters.”
However, EC spokesman Okello Jabweli said in Kampala that the new polling stations were meant to rationalise the polling process, to ease voter access to some polling stations, and to reduce congestion at others. He told The EastAfrican that allegations of foreigners being smuggled into the electoral process could only be answered by the Immigration Department. He said that the EC had investigated the issue because it was not aware of any plans to use the SPLA in the voting process.
Both the Uganda Joint Christian Council and TI have said there are too many polling stations to allow effective monitoring of the polls. The Council said it can only monitor half the country’s 20,000 polling stations. The organisation is only making available 10,000 monitors due to lack of resources.
(ST/The EastAfrican)