Former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has responded to President Museveni’s attribution of the election loss by the Opposition to being weak and in a slumber.
President Museveni told his supporters last Saturday at Kololo Airstrip during celebrations for his election victory that he was amazed by his opponents who say the presidential elections were rigged but wondered why they also lost parliamentary and local government elections.
“If you are saying you were rigged at the presidential level, how come you lost parliamentary, LC5 and sub- county elections? How can they cheat you three million votes? Did you have agents? Did you have a political party? That means you are in a slumber,” Mr Museveni said.
But while appearing on the NTV Fourth Estate show on Sunday, Dr Besigye said the rigging was widespread across all levels. “This was not an election. I have said it over and over but some people don’t get it. NRM is not a party. It’s the State. We are contesting against the DISOs, GISOs, RDCs. If you want to understand how pervasive the situation is, many of our candidates were arrested. Many people had their results changed at the tally centre, especially in the local government elections,” he said.
Dr Besigye, who has contested and lost four times to President Museveni, dismissed Museveni’s argument, saying there is no correlation between attaining majority seats in Parliament and winning presidential election.
“That’s an argument of people evading the truth because Dr Kiggundu gave me 35 per cent; but in Parliament we [FDC] have 10 per cent. Why? If you think that the votes of President must have some relevance to other elections, why doesn’t FDC have 30 per cent of MPs?” he asked.
When asked why the Opposition failed to field candidates in some districts and constituencies and yet NRM had candidates at all levels, Dr Besigye blamed the ruling party for using state resources to field and fund its candidates. “Many candidates, who stood on NRM ticket don’t believe in NRM. They would have preferred to stand in other parties where they know they would not be molested. They go to NRM because they know they have someone to use in elections,” he said.
Democratic Party president Norbert Mao admits the Opposition was “fragmented” but said Mr Museveni should not use it as an excuse for “rigging” elections. “We are going to outlive him. We shall have the last laugh. Let him attend to issues affecting the country, not undermining the Opposition,” Mr Mao said.
Results
Mr Museveni scored 60 per cent and Dr Besigye got 35 per cent. The NRM got 294 Members of Parliament while FDC has 34. Out of 112 local council 5 chairpersons, NRM has 84.
Leave a Reply