KAMPALA, Uganda - Returns from Uganda’s presidential election announced Saturday showed President Yoweri Museveni with a huge lead over his rival, making it likely he will extend his 25-year hold on power. The top challenger said the results were not acceptable and was considering his options.
With two-thirds of the votes counted, out of nearly 14 million registered voters, Museveni had about 69 percent of the ballots cast. Top rival Kizza Besigye, a retired army colonel, had just shy of 25 percent. Final results are expected to be announced today.
Besigye, running for president for a third time, polled strongly in the cosmopolitan capital of Kampala, as well as other key regions, but the president was carrying much of rural Uganda in landslides.
Museveni and Besigye each said he expected to win the election, and Besigye has previously threatened Egyptstyle protests if the results are not in line with what he and his supporters believe the true returns are. On Saturday he rejected the official results projecting a large win for Museveni.
“It is now clear the will of the people cannot be expressed through the electoralprocess,” Besigye said. “We the Ugandan people will eventually prevail.”
Electoral Commission Chairman Badru Kiggundu said counting was going smoothly but he said there had been some problems on voting day. John Mary Odoy, director of Democracy Monitoring Group, said several abnormalities were reported during Friday’s vote, including ballots pre-marked for Museveni’s party and observers being refused access to polling stations.
“There is no election in the world that is 100 percent without problems,” Kiggundu said. “We are only five years into the current multiparty system.”
Sporadic violence alsowas reported. In the south, a member of parliament who is running for re-election was reportedly part of a mob that beat an opposition campaign officer to death. In the east, a journalist was shot when a candidate’s convoy he was in was attacked.
Museveni, an ex-rebel commander who seized power at the head of a guerrilla army in 1986, once criticized African rulers who clung to power. He is running for an unprecedented fourth term, after abolishing term limits before elections in 2001.
Over the past three elections, his share of the vote has steadily declined, but the preliminary results on Saturday suggested he would make a stronger showing this year. He sought another five-year term as a president who has fostered peace, stability and growth.
Museveni, who is vague about his age and is either 66 or 67, has mostly escaped the wrath recently aimed at other long-serving African leaders.
Besigye plans to release his own tally of results and is threatening mass protests. He insists Uganda is ready for popular revolt.
Museveni has said there will be no such protests in his country and that he will jail anyone who attempts to spark unrest.
While previous election campaigns were marred byviolence against opposition candidates, observers said Museveni allowed opposition candidates a freer hand to campaign this year.
But international advocacy groups have said this year’s elections, which include voting for parliament and local offices, were the most expensive in the country’s history, including lavish campaign rallies and allegations of ubiquitous envelopes stuffed with cash - sometimes as little as about 20 cents - to buy votes, particularly in the countryside.
Opposition politicians and local news media have accused Museveni and parts of the government of using state funds, including an emergency $300 million granted in January, on campaigns.
Museveni remains popular with a wide cross-section of Ugandans, from the older generation who remember years of war that Museveni is credited with ending, to the youth who are drawn by his charisma - the president released a rap single last year.
The anti-Museveni vote is splintered among seven challengers, who cannot compete with the president financially.
Information for this article was contributed by Max Delany and Godfrey Olukya of The Associated Press and by Josh Kron of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 02/20/2011