Uganda Ready for ’Peaceful’ Polls

Local Editor

Ugandan election officials Wednesday said they were expecting presidential and parliamentary polls to pass off peacefully, the final day before seven candidates challenge veteran leader Yoweri Museveni's three-decade grip on power.

Meanwhile, national electoral commission spokesman Jotham Taremwa said: "The stage is set. We have dispatched electoral materials to all polling stations throughout the country and are ready to kick off the exercise."

"We expect a peaceful exercise. Security is on the ground and we have put out messages calling on voters to come in big numbers Thursday and cast their votes," he added.

Despite the elections, Museveni and his ruling National Resistance Movement [NRM] party are widely predicted to win a fifth term, with the 71-year-old former rebel leader entering his fourth decade in power.

"Whoever will try to bring violence, you will see what we shall do to him. Those who want violence should play somewhere else not Uganda," Museveni told thousands of supporters in his final rally Tuesday afternoon, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper.

"There are people spreading fear, but let them know that nobody should intimidate Ugandans, and nobody is going to disrupt the peace in Uganda."

For his part, key opposition candidate Kizza Besigye, a three-time loser who was briefly detained by police in chaotic protests Monday, said he is still confident of a first round win.

Over 15 million Ugandans are registered to vote, casting ballots in over 28,000 polling stations for both a president and members of parliament, with 290 seats being contested by candidates from 29 political parties.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team