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Uganda vote set to extend Museveni's 25-year rule
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Uganda vote set to extend Museveni's 25-year rule
AFP - Saturday, February 19
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KAMPALA (AFP) - – Ugandans voted Friday in polls widely expected to extend Yoweri Museveni's rule to 30 years, amid opposition accusations the veteran leader was rigging his way to re-election.
Polls closed officially at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), with some stations recording low turnout.
"The electoral commission is satisfied with things so far. There have been some incidents around the country but we corrected them as we went along," Charles Willy Ochola, electoral commission spokesman, said.
Some 14 million voters, out of a total population of just under 33 million, were to choose their next president and their members of parliament.
The electoral commission must, by law, publish complete results within 48 hours after the close of voting, that is by 1400 GMT Sunday.
Mary Karooro Okurut, spokeswoman for the ruling National Resistence Movement, also expressed satisfaction.
"I've just heard about a few isolated incidents but otherwise we're happy, we think the elections were as peaceful as the campaign," she said.
But Margaret Wokuri, an opposition spokeswoman saw things differently. "We have serious concerns about what happened today. Many of our people have been harassed," she said.
Voting material was delivered several hours late to some polling stations in Kampala, identified by residents as being in opposition strongholds.
Ochola of the Electoral Commission blamed "traffic" for the delay, despite the virtual absence of vehicles from the capital's streets.
"It was because of the traffic congestion. The commission decided... to leave the election material in the warehouses during the night. But when we went to move it, the traffic was too much," he said.
Opponents of Museveni have warned that Uganda was ripe for the kind of uprising currently sweeping the Arab world.
Museveni's main challenger Kizza Besigye has claimed only rigging by the regime could deprive him of victory and has pledged to release his own set of results.
Museveni, 66, has been defiant, predicting a landslide victory and promising to crack down on protests.
"There will be no Egypt-like revolution here... Egypt is a different story. Tunisia is a different story," he said Wednesday.
The terms "Tunisia", "Egypt" and "Dictator" were nonetheless on a list of potentially explosive terms the Uganda Communications Commission said it had instructed telecom operators to block in text messages.
Museveni has steered Uganda to an average growth rate of five percent since 2004 and proved a key security ally of the West.
While he has been criticised over anti-gay campaigns and human rights, Museveni has won praise for sending 4,000 Ugandans to battle Al Qaeda-linked rebels in Somalia when no Western country was willing to send its own soldiers.
Museveni has also brought stability to a country whose recent history was marked by coups and the brutal rule of Idi Amin Dada.
Besigye, the most prominent of Museveni's seven challengers, and his former physician, has already accused the regime of planning widespread rigging to ensure Museveni's re-election.
The opposition leader made a thinly veiled call for mass protests if official results did not go his way, raising the spectre of yet another post-election crisis.
The electoral commission has warned against any other body releasing results.
Ugandans have yet to experience a democratic change of power.
Many commentators believe the election could be the closest since Museveni, a former guerrilla leader, grabbed power in 1986.
Museveni has campaigned on his success in ridding the country of the Lord's Resistance Army's brutal rebellion and the prospect of an oil windfall in his next term.
In areas where polling got under way Friday, some voters were adamant Museveni should be allowed to continue his work.
"He is giving us peace. Why should we remove him? The other candidates are just giving words," said Margaret Kaliisa, 30.
If he completes a new term, Museveni will join a select club of African leaders who have ruled for more than 30 years such as Libya's Moamer Kadhafi and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
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