Uganda asks US not to “lecture” others on how to conduct elections

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Uganda asks US not to “lecture” others on how to conduct elections
This content was published on Jan 13, 2021 – 12:56

Kampala, January 13 (EFE). – Ugandan government spokesman, Ofono Obondo, accused the United States on Wednesday of wanting to “interfere” in the presidential elections that will be held tomorrow in the African country, and emphasized that the US mission. The American observer should be the last to ‘lecture’ others about democratic processes.

Obondo 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 US observer mission should be the last to give a (other) lecture when (outgoing) President Donald Trump claims that the dead voted in the last election and that the votes were rigged,” despite the fact that US courts already have a ruling that There was no fraud.

The United States canceled its observation mission for the presidential elections that took place tomorrow in Uganda, on Wednesday, after the Electoral Commission refused to accredit more than 75% of its observers, as announced by the American ambassador to the African country.

“With only 15 approved, it is not possible for the United States to meaningfully monitor the conduct 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 this election, which did not happen in the 2016 elections, when the United States managed to deploy 88 electoral observers in a country.

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

The Ugandan government yesterday blocked access to messaging apps 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 environment of increasing repression, domestic journalists were subjected to enforced repression when covering opposition rallies and popular musician Bobby Wayne, and the foreign press faced many difficulties in obtaining accreditation.

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

“The excessive and onerous accreditation rules of the Ugandan authorities show their contempt for the role of the press in democratic processes,” the representative of the People’s Protection Committee for Sub-Saharan Africa said in a statement on December 23. (CPJ), Mothuki Momo.

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

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