Uganda's Museveni on brink of huge poll win
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Veteran Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni was on the brink of a massive win in a presidential election the opposition says was a sham, provisional results showed on Sunday.
Provisional results from almost all the 23,968 polling stations handed Museveni 68 percent of the votes counted, with his rival Kizza Besigye trailing on 26 percent, confounding expectations of a closely fought contest.
Many Ugandans complain their country is riddled with corruption and lacks investment in public services and infrastructure. Others respect Museveni for restoring stability and overseeing a period of sustained economic growth in a country previously plagued by despots such as Idi Amin.
The opposition plans to meet on Sunday to plot its next move. Facing off against Museveni for the third consecutive poll, Besigye has said his supporters could take to the streets and that the country was ripe for an Egypt-style revolt.
"The lack of a level playing field and strong advantage of incumbency compromised the competitive nature of the poll," Dame Billie Miller, head of the Commonwealth observer team said in a preliminary statement on Sunday.
Campaigning had been largely peaceful and voting was reasonably calm but marred by pockets of violence, the former foreign minister of Barbados said.
Besigye said huge sums had been used to buy votes and to bribe polling agents, candidates in the simultaneous parliamentary election, and electoral officials. But he stopped short of categorically rejecting the result.
"It is now clear the will of the people cannot be expressed through the electoral process in this kind of corrupt and repressive political environment," Besigye, once a close political ally of Museveni, told a news conference late on Saturday.
BESIGYE LOSES NORTH
Joseph Lake of the Economist Intelligence Unit said robust growth in east Africa's third largest economy and a sharp slowdown in inflation in 2010 had improved the spending power of households ahead of the vote.
"Museveni has retained his popularity, particularly in rural areas, and the (ruling National Resistance Movement) NRM has a large financial advantage over opposition parties," Lake said.
Both Museveni, in power since 1986, and his NRM made huge gains in northern Uganda, the centre of a two-decade rebellion that has now fizzled out, and a traditional opposition stronghold, results indicated.
The region has benefited considerably from emerging trading links between Kampala and a booming south Sudan, and political analysts said Besigye had taken its support for granted.
"Museveni won. How could Besigye say the election was a sham when even Museveni won the north because he gave those people there peace," said Museveni supporter Wilson Mutumba in Kampala.
Results from the parliamentary vote showed more than a dozen cabinet ministers including those for agriculture, education and internal affairs, had lost their seats.
"Museveni must have fixed the election because, if people vote for him, what are they celebrating? Poverty?" said engineer Michael Kelem.