- Title: UGANDA: VOTE COUNTING BEGINS IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
- Date: 13th March 2001
- Summary: MBARARA, 300 KILOMETRES SOUTH-WEST OF KAMPALA, UGANDA (MARCH 12, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/MV/CU: NIGHT SCENES, PEOPLE STANDING AROUND AS VOTES ARE COUNTED, SOLDIER STANDS BY ON GUARD/ VOTES COUNTED BY LIGHT OF TORCH/ PEOPLE CHEER AS VOTES ARE COUNTED (8 SHOTS) 0.35 (AUDIO AS INCOMING) 2. VARIOUS: DAY SCENES, WIDE VIEW PEOPLE QUEUING TO VOTE IN YOWERI MUSEVENI'S HOME DISTRICT OF MBARARA/ MAN PUTTING BALLOT PAPER IN BALLOT BOX/ VARIOUS OF GATHERED TO VOTE/ ELECTION MONITOR/ VARIOUS OF VOTING (8 SHOTS) 1.17 RWAKITURA, UGANDA (MARCH 12, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 3. MV/GV/CU: PRESIDENT YOWERI MUSEVENI IN LINE, BEHIND HIS WIFE, TO VOTE/ BALLOT PAPER/ PRESIDENT MUSEVENI BEING CHECKED ON LIST/ PRESIDENT VOTING (5 SHOTS) 1.52 4. CU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) PRESIDENT YOWERI MUSEVENI SAYING: "Absolutely, we are going to win for sure but we are struggling to make sure there are not false voters" 2.00 5. CU: PRESIDENT SHOWS THUMB PAINTED RED TO SHOW HE HAS VOTED/ WIDE (2 SHOTS) 2.06 RUKINGIRI, UGANDA (MARCH 12, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. GV/MV: MAIN OPPOSITION CANDIDATE KIZZA BESIGYE WAITING IN LINE TO VOTE (2 SHOTS) 2.16 7. MV: ELECTION OFFICIAL FINDING BESIGYE'S NAME ON REGISTER/ BESIGYE RECEIVING BALLOT PAPER/ BESIGYE CASTING BALLOT (3 SHOTS) 2.41 8. CU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) BESIGYE, SAYING: "The army presence is everywhere throughout this district, heavy army presence. Because you do not see them here does not mean they are not heavily deployed here. Last evening there were very many patrols over this place." 2.57 9. GV: OTHERS WAITING TO VOTE 3.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 28th March 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MBARARA, RWAKITURA AND RUKINGIRI, UGANDA
- Country: Uganda
- Reuters ID: LVA5XLCNK5E7GXEMS8QHX5XV1NU0
- Story Text: Vote counting is proceeding in the dark in Uganda's
presidential election after polls closed in one of the hardest
fought elections in the country's history.
Voters turned out in large numbers on Monday (March
12). Most of the polling was calm despite reports of
intimidation and attempted vote-rigging.
In incumbent Yoweri Museveni's home district of Mbarara,
300 kilometres south-west of Kampala, votes were counted by
torchlight after polls closed.
Earlier in the day voters had queued to cast their votes.
Election monitors checked the process of the voting.
Museveni, accompanied by his wife, chatted with young
children and local elders before voting at Kaaro High School
on a lush green hillside near his country home in Rwakitura.
Asked if he would win, Museveni said: "Absolutely. I am
going to win for sure. There will be no run-off but what we
are fighting with is cheating...not popularity but cheating
because the electoral process has got some weaknesses."
Museveni, 56, took power at the head of a guerrilla army
in 1986, and won by a landslide 74 percent when he first went
to the polls in 1996.
This time he faces a much tougher challenge from Kizza
Besigye, a former comrade in the bush war. The campaign has
been bitter, each side accusing the other of violence and
intimidation and trying to rig the vote.
Looking relaxed and confident, Besigye earlier voted at
his home town of Rukingiri in southwestern Uganda, where the
race has been particularly fierce.
Besigye has said his supporters in the district were
intimidated and that the army, which is helping to supervise
the elections countrywide, is partisan.
"The army presence is everywhere throughout the district,"
he said after casting his vote.
He added: "Because you do not see them here does not mean
they are not heavily deployed here. Last evening there were
very many patrols over this place."
Besigye said his supporters in the district have been
intimidated and that the army, which is helping to supervise
the elections countrywide, is partisan.
Anne Mugisha, a spokeswoman for Besigye, said his agents
had been beaten up and chased away from the nearby sub-county
of Kambuga, and foreign reporters later corroborated the
story.
The team of journalists said they had seen evidence of
extensive vote rigging in Kambuga, with many people turning up
at the polls to find their votes already cast for Museveni.
Mugisha said Bisigye's agents had also been beaten at
Bundibugyo on the border with Congo.
When Museveni came to power 15 years ago, he ended a
nightmare period in Uganda's history during which hundreds of
thousands of people were tortured and killed under the
dictators Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
Museveni rebuilt the economy, introduced free primary
education, championed women's rights, and brought HIV/AIDS
under control, in the process becoming a darling of the West.
He also banned political parties, which he blamed for
ethnic and sectarian hatred, and governed instead as head of a
"no party" Movement.
But Besigye's challenge has been surprisingly strong,
tapping disillusionment among Movement insiders and those left
behind by the system.
Besigye was Museveni's doctor in the guerrilla army and
became a senior figure in his government. But he grew unhappy
with Museveni's autocratic leadership, his unwillingness to
take advice or to tackle corruption.
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