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KAMPALA, July 1 (AFP) - Ugandan voters have rejected a return to multi-party democracy in favor of the country's existing system that sidelines political parties, according to results from 85 percent of electoral districts declared Saturday. The results, released by the election commission chairman Haji Aziz Kashuja show that 91.5 percent of the votes cast were in favor of keeping President Yoweri Museveni's Movement system, which has been in place for 14 years. Only 8.5 percent of the voters cast their ballots in favor of a return to multi-party politics. Turnout was estimated at 44.9 percent. In theory every Ugandan is a member of the Movement and can stand for any public office, from the village to the cabinet, but cannot do so under the banner of the three political parties that currently exist. Under the current system, described by critics as a thinly veiled one-party state, these parties are not allowed to hold meetings or to campaign or back candidates during elections. Museveni introduced the Movement system, named after the National Resistance Movement, the rebel group at the head of which he rose to power, in 1986. Museveni argues that the turmoil and bloodshed of Uganda's past, especially under the regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, was largely rooted in the tribalistic and sectarian nature of political parties and that if the usual rights of such parties were restored, such unrest could return. Kashuja said final results would not be released until 1400 GMT on Sunday blaming the delay on logistical problems. The results made available so far show that about 95 percent of voters in densely populated western Uganda, Museveni's home area, voted in favor of the Movement system. Turnout was low in the northern district of Gulu and Kitgum, which have been wracked by 12-years of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army insurgency. Turnout was in general higher in rural areas than in urban areas, according to Kashuja. The three parties that still exist in Uganda, the Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the Ugandan Peoples Congress, had called for a boycott of the referendum on the grounds that fundamental democratic rights should not be put to the vote and that the Movement enjoyed an unfair advantage during the campaign. It was, however, not immediately clear if those who stayed away from the polling stations did so to heed the boycott call or just out of political apathy. Some 9.6 million Ugandans were eligible to vote in the referendum. |
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