Opposition leader, Rtd. Col. Kiiza Besigye has expressed his dismay that 53 years after Independence, Uganda is yet to have free and fair elections.
The FDC presidential flag bearer spoke to the media after casting his vote in Rukungiri. This is the fourth time that Besigye is taking on incumbent President Yoweri Museveni and he says he has been rigged out of victory in the past three elections.
Below is his statement in part.
“Holding free and fair elections is still the biggest challenge for this country, because no single leader since Independence has assumed leadership of the country through the process of voting.
Citizens come and vote and their vote is ignored. In other words, the significance of such a day is highly undermined by the lack of free and fair elections. This country has never enjoyed free and fair elections.
All the officials managing this election are officials that are appointed and managed by one of the candidates and the security and military institutions plus administrators of our country like RDCs and other administrative functions of the state are openly and virulently partisan.
Unfortunately, 53 years after Independence, Ugandans have not had a chance of a free and fair election. Nonetheless, we use every opportunity at the election to push a frontier for citizens freedoms and rights and that is exactly what we are doing in this election.
I have already said that this an election we are going to win by defiance and not compliance and that defiance was to some extent either genuinely misunderstood or deliberately misrepresented.”
