Uganda asks the United States not to “preach” to others about how to hold elections Scientist

Ugandan government spokesman, Ofono Ubundo, on Wednesday accused the United States of wanting to “interfere” in the presidential elections scheduled for tomorrow in the African country, and stressed that the US observation mission should be the last to “lecture” others about democratic processes.

Ubundo confirmed on Twitter that the elections in Uganda “will be peaceful, free, fair and credible even without the supervision of the US embassy in Uganda.”

The Ugandan official added that “the American observation mission should be the last to direct (to others) when (outgoing) President Donald Trump confirms that the dead voted in the last elections and that the votes were rigged,” despite the fact that the courts have already ruled the Americans that there are no Forgery.

The United States canceled its monitoring mission for the presidential elections scheduled to take place tomorrow, Wednesday, in Uganda, after the Election Commission refused to grant accreditation to more than 75% of its observers, as announced by the US ambassador to the African country.

“With only 15 accreditations approved, it is not possible for the United States to significantly monitor the development of Ugandan elections at polling stations in the country,” Ambassador Natalie E. Brown said in a statement from Kampala.

According to Brown, the Electoral Commission did not provide any explanation for its decision to reject accreditation requests days before these elections, which did not happen in the 2016 elections, when the United States managed to deploy 88 election observers in the country. .

Brown added, “Among civil society organizations that have already received accreditation, the majority of their observers did not receive their badges within two days of the elections.”

The Ugandan government yesterday blocked access to messaging applications and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp in retaliation, according to President Yoweri Museveni, for the suspension of more than a hundred Facebook accounts linked to senior Ugandan officials for “manipulating public debate.”

During the election campaign, in an atmosphere of increasing repression, local journalists were subjected to forced repression when covering opposition rallies and popular musician Bobby Wayne, and the foreign press faced many difficulties obtaining accreditation.

On December 10, the Ugandan Media Council banned local and foreign journalists from covering any electoral event if they did not properly register with that agency, and ordered foreign correspondents in the country to renew their accreditation within a week.

“The excessive and onerous accreditation rules of the Ugandan authorities reveal their contempt for the role of the press in democratic processes,” the Sub-Saharan Africa representative to the US Committee said in a statement on December 23. Journalists (Committee to Protect Journalists), Muthuki Momo.

He added that Uganda should “abandon efforts to use funds as an excuse to restrict coverage of these elections.”