{"id":23502,"date":"2016-02-25T05:38:25","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T05:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/un-s-ban-ki-moon-decries-irregularities-in-polls\/"},"modified":"2016-02-25T05:38:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T05:38:22","slug":"un-s-ban-ki-moon-decries-irregularities-in-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/un-s-ban-ki-moon-decries-irregularities-in-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"UN\u2019s Ban Ki-moon decries irregularities in polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

{United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the world body stands by findings of international election observer groups, the European Union and Commonwealth, which noted widespread irregularities that marred Uganda\u2019s presidential polls held last Thursday.}<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Mr Ban Ki-moon, Stephane Dujarric, released a statement in New York on Tuesday night in which the Secretary General called upon \u201call political actors and their supporters to resolve any disputes that might arise in an atmosphere of peace, through established legal procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary General takes note of the findings of the international observation teams that stated that the elections were largely peaceful yet identified a number of shortcomings and irregularities. The secretary general echoes these concerns while commending the voters for their participation and commitment to the process,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

Mr Ban called upon the \u201cUgandan authorities to ensure that all claims and concerns related to the process are handled in a fair, expeditious and transparent manner\u201d.
\nUganda is part of the 193-member inter-governmental organisation headed by Mr Ban whose main objectives are to promote international cooperation. President-elect Yoweri Museveni, a principal ally of Western powers on matters of regional security, was last Saturday declared winner with 60.8 per cent poll victory with his main challenger FDC\u2019s Kizza Besigye receiving 35 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n

However, FDC insists Dr Besigye won the election and have since slammed the results declared by the Electoral Commission as a sham.<\/p>\n

The European Union and Commonwealth observer groups, in their assessment reports, said the exercise was marked by a blatant lack of a level playing field, voter intimidation, a biased Electoral Commission, incidents of violence and harassment of Opposition politicians.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, Switzerland separately told journalists on Tuesday that the office is alarmed by the continued \u201cintimidating display\u201d of the police and machinegun-wielding military personnel, and their conduct as has been exhibited in the recent days in the crackdown on Opposition politicians and besieging of FDC party headquarters in Najjanankumbi.<\/p>\n

Ms Pouilly put specific emphasis on the repeated arrest of Dr Besigye, who since last week has been arrested and detained at least nine times. She also expressed concern about former prime minister Amama Mbabazi whose movements are restricted.<\/p>\n

Kampala Police Metropolitan spokesperson Patrick Onyango has told this newspaper that Dr Besigye is arrested whenever he is bound to cause trouble. \u201cHe says he wants to go to EC but his intentions are very different.\u201d Mr Onyango said.<\/p>\n

He, however, did not provide any proof of the police\u2019s claims. As a signatory to various international human rights instruments, the UN advised Uganda to stick to its obligation \u201cnot to unduly restrict freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Botwsana president Ian Seretse Khama\u2019s government has also tendered a note to the Ugandan authorities affirming the findings by international observers, citing last Thursday\u2019s polls as having fallen \u201cshort of democratic principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government of Botswana remains deeply concerned that such conduct during an election would have deeply undermined the norms of best practice governing democratic elections, as well as, the continent\u2019s efforts towards consolidation of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The note issued through the country\u2019s ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, however, urged \u201call concerned parties to address the election disputes for the peace and stability of their nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Botswana\u2019s Consul in Kampala Maria Odido DiFonzo told this newspaper that, notwithstanding this, what they want to see \u201cis all parties reach dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the world body stands by findings of international election observer groups, the European Union and Commonwealth, which noted widespread irregularities that marred Uganda\u2019s presidential polls held last Thursday.} A spokesperson for Mr Ban Ki-moon, Stephane Dujarric, released a statement in New York on Tuesday night in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23502"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23502"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}