Uganda opposition plans legal challenges against electoral commision

Opposition parliamentary and presidential candidates are planning to launch legal challenges against Uganda's electoral commission this week. Reports say that the electoral commission is prepared to face such move from the opposition following the results of the February 18 general elections.

A spokesman for the electoral commission, Jotham Taremwa, said everybody agrees that the elections were a success and that everyone can go to the court in case they are not happy with the outcome. The Voice of America reported that independent candidate Patrick Amama Mbabazi and primary opposition leader of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Kizza Besigye dispute the outcome of the election. They told the media that they are heading to court, claiming there have been 'irregularities and rigging' involved, which led to the victory of incumbent President Yoweri Museveni.

Badru Kiggundu, chairman of Uganda's electoral commission, announced Museveni as the winner of the presidential vote with 60.07 percent of the total vote cast. Kiggundu insisted that the general election is credible, despite reports by international and local election observers that the poll held in intimidating circumstances was neither 'free nor fair.'

Joy Kabatsi, one of the candidates from the opposition who ran for parliament, told Al Jazeera that she found the ruling party officials stuffing pre-ticked ballot papers into ballot boxes. She also showed the news agency some samples of the pre-ticked ballots which she had found.

Electoral law of Uganda says legal challenges can be submitted up to 10 days after the results are announced. According to Standard Media, Besigye and his party has yet to decide whether they will legally dispute the results. A spokeswoman for Besigye added that his detention has 'eaten some of the time' the party has to lodge a petition. Police officers prevented Kizza Besigye from traveling to vote in a local council election for fear that he will stimulate his supporters to engage in illegal protests.

Meanwhile, EU urged Uganda's electoral commission to publish all the results from the 28,010 polling stations across the nations. The opposition believe that by publishing the results, the public will then know how the results were fabricated in favor of Museveni and his party, the National Resistance Movement.

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Uganda, opposition, legal challenges, electoral commision, uganda election, European Union, national resistance movement, Kizza Besigye, Yoweri Museveni

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