The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ugandan poll

  • Ugandan woman has 38 children at age 37

    A 37-year-old Ugandan woman has 38 children, including four sets of triplets, three sets of quadruplets and twins, a local politician said on Wednesday,

    County Councillor Samari Musenero said Mariam Nabatanzi from Kabimbiri village, about 50 kilometres north-east of the capital Kampala, had all the children with the same man.

    He added that the children were between four months and 23 years old.

    “The woman is struggling to support her offspring because she receives no financial assistance from the father of the children,” the politician said.

    He explained that politicians from the district had mobilised government funds to provide Nabatanzi with maize seeds to plant.

  • Ugandan opposition leader arrested over protest march

    Uganda’s main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, has been taken into police custody after vowing to lead a protest march against President Yoweri Museveni’s election victory.

    Mr. Besigye was bundled into a police van when he tried to leave his home, where he had been under house arrest, the BBC reports.

    His wife Winnie Byanyima said it was like a “military barracks” outside their home in the capital, Kampala.

    Mr. Museveni won Thursday’s poll by a landslide to extend his 30-year rule.

    Mr. Besigye said the result had been rigged, while foreign observers said the poll had been marred by fear and intimidation.

    Mr. Museveni rejected allegations of vote rigging, and accused Mr. Besigye of planning to incite violence.

    Responding to criticism from European Union observers that the electoral commission “lacked independence and transparency,” Mr. Museveni told the BBC that “those Europeans are not serious.”

    “Transparency is what we’ve been voting for,” he added.

    Mr. Besigye had vowed to march to the headquarters of the Electoral Commission to ask for a copy of the official declaration of results.

    Official results gave Mr. Museveni nearly 61 per cent of the votes, with Mr. Besigye taking 35 per cent.

    It was the fourth time Mr. Besigye, candidate for the opposition Forum for Democratic Change party, had lost to Mr. Museveni.

  • Museveni wins Ugandan election

    President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday won Uganda’s disputed presidential election, cementing his 30-year grip on power in the East African nation despite criticism of the poll by European and Commonwealth observers.

    Museveni won 60.8 percent of the vote, while his main challenger Kizza Besigye secured 35.4 percent, the electoral commission said.

    Besigye’s camp had been disputing results before the final announcement.

    Besigye was arrested on Friday and appeared to be under house arrest on Saturday, Reuters reported.

    The EU observer mission said Thursday’s election was conducted in an intimidating atmosphere, while Commonwealth observers said the poll “fell short of meeting some key democratic benchmarks.”

    Museveni, 71, has presided over strong economic growth but faces mounting accusations at home and abroad of cracking down on dissent and failing to tackle rampant corruption in the nation of 37 million people.

    Eduard Kukan, chief observer for the EU Mission, told reporters in Kampala that the poll was undermined by a “lack of transparency and independence” at the Ugandan electoral commission.

    “State actors created an intimidating atmosphere for both voters and candidates,” he added.

    Besigye was arrested on Friday as his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) attempted to hold a press conference to release their own poll results.

    One senior FDC official said there were “glaring discrepancies” with official figures.

  • Museveni leads in Ugandan poll

    Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni took an early lead in the country’s election, preliminary results from the Electoral Commission showed on Friday.

    The commission said Museveni garnered 1.36 million votes out of a total 2.32 million votes counted from 6,448 polling stations out of a total 28,010 stations.

    The tally, according to Reuters, gave Museveni 61.75 percent of the votes counted, followed by opposition leader Kizza Besigye with 33.47 percent.

  • Ugandan candidate promises to repatriate Idi Amin’s remains

    A candidate in Uganda’s presidential elections has promised to repatriate the remains of the former dictator, Idi Amin, and build a museum in his honour.

    Amama Mbabazi, a former prime minister, is quoted as saying that the move would help reconcile Ugandans divided over the legacy of Amin and other leaders.

    Mr. Mbabazi is running against President Yoweri Museveni in next week’s polls, the BBC reports.

    Amin’s rule was notorious for its brutality. He was overthrown in 1979 and died in exile in 2003.

    An armed forces chief under President Milton Obote, Amin seized power in a coup in 1971. He ordered the expulsion of Uganda’s Asian community a year later.

    He became infamous for his capricious behaviour and for his punishment of political opponents. Some 400,000 people are estimated to have been killed while he was in power.

    Amin fled Uganda in 1979, seeking refuge in Libya, Iraq and eventually Saudi Arabia, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

    Mr. Mbabazi made his promise to repatriate Amin’s remains on a visit to the former dictator’s ancestral home in north-west Uganda.

    His spokeswoman said his party was campaigning for reconciliation and for the “forgiveness for any real or perceived wrongs in the past.”