Uganda’s 2021 Elections: A Voter’s Perspective

#UgandaElections #UGVotes2021

“Uganda’s long-time President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected. Mr. Museveni won almost 59% of the vote, with Bobi Wine trailing with about 35%, the Electoral Commission said.” — BBC reports

Well, the breaking news may be around the presidential election but the parliamentary figures are a lot more interesting (for a person like me who likes to observe politics from a critical viewpoint, although not overly invested) and I look forward to the post-election analysis of what those numbers translate for the ‘ordinary citizen’.

Let’s first talk parliament, let’s talk the legislative assembly, let’s talk about the people’s representatives.

I am counting on my friends in the Fourth Estate to follow through on some of these discussions as the electorate seems to have sternly communicated through the parliamentary vote. Those many different messages and electoral voices (loud or mellow) are what I’ll be interested in listening to, and reading as the days progress.

Among many changes, we have seen Cabinet Ministers and incumbents hitting the exit door really fast, as they were unseated in historic fashion in many places around the country; perhaps a message that the electorate desires and demands more and better service delivery in what many have labeled a parliamentary “protest vote”.

Not to say that the incumbents had done nothing, but that the desires of the citizens aren’t static and that the elected politicians must remain woke, in sync with reality. And by reality, I mean “rising up to the task of presenting the evolving demands of the ‘ordinary citizen’, lest they get sacked for pillowing on the job”.

The onus is certainly now on those elected men and women (the youthful Honorables even more…) to represent the voice of the ballot or they risk facing the same exit route and blade that axed their predecessors.

The next parliament will be interesting, and indeed one to watch. I’d like to particularly congratulate the younger folks including the journalists who’ve won seats to the legislature. Will this be a breath of new air? Time will tell…

🎥 Agnes Nandutu

🎥 Joyce Bagala

📻 Kazibwe Bashir

🎥 Joel Ssenyonyi

The fact is that this is still largely a yellow parliament, but some really significant statements have been made in the numbers attained by nascent political party, the National Unity Platform (NUP) Vis-à-vis tested political parties, especially in the central districts that include the country’s capital, Kampala. They’ve won against veteran political parties and sent some long-serving politicians packing. One can say, this is a foundation that the 5–6 months old, red-clad political union with their People Power movement can build upon for the future.

I’ll need to assess the presidential election a bit more in order to objectively comment on it and the next weeks and months should aid that effort.

I will nevertheless keenly follow (at the presidential level) candidate Robert Kyagulanyi’s and those other opposition candidates’ contestation of the result and/or their plan to petition the same. And if he does (or they do) petition, I am curious about those MPs (especially the ones) who went through on the NUP card (or say, rode the “Umbrella Wave”). Will they stand by Mr. Ssentamu (alias Bobi Wine) in supporting his case; or will we see their true colors, now that they’ve won. Knowing that politics is never devoid of dirt and surprises… We will certainly watch the space.

Of course, there have been questions around the believability of the election results premised on the really sticky issue of a nationwide 5-day shutdown of the internet (following the suspension of an already controversially taxed social media) in what should have been an internet election which the Electoral Commission had prior on branded a “Scientific Election” amid several COVID-19 SOPs and guidelines. Its implication on the integrity of the election process is to be evaluated but also the inevitable court cases that are expected to follow, against the Government’s Attorney, are chats I look forward to catching up on with friends now that the internet is revived.

The government of Uganda insists this was a move in the interest of the Nation, because of several threats to security; although several Ugandans have said they were deprived of access to what they say is and/or was an important source of information.

Many agree that the shutdown has had an obvious cost on the economy and I believe that this will dominate a lot of the discourse in the coming days on a background of an earlier case petitioning the dual internet shutdowns the country experienced during the February 2016 polls.

That said, once the president-elect is sworn in later this year, these should be 5 more years for incumbent Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) Government, to deliver on the objectives in the National Development Plan III which entails a wide-landscape of aspirations sourced from the people of Uganda. Of course, it won’t be business as usual; and the job is not made any easier by the existence of the coronavirus pandemic whose SOP popularity seems to unfortunately become a matter that the public no-longer considers serious.

More demands, more expectations, and a larger spotlight rest on the NRM-Government as they are tested against their delivery on more of the promises in their manifesto including a tough task to harmonize the many dissimilar voices.

The over 40% registered voters (over 8 million) who didn’t participate in this year’s presidential and parliamentary electoral process for various reasons also leaves a number of unanswered but pertinent questions. Questions of whether this is a percentage of disinterested Ugandans who have given up on the politicians and the electoral process or whether this represents a section of concerned voters (like my granny who had rung me from the village the day before requesting that I voted and retreated to my home right away). It was nevertheless, a calm process from what I witnessed as we drove through Kampala on Thursday.

There will also be a nation-wide call for an explanation regarding the events of the 18th, 19th, and perhaps 20th of November 2020; as well as the call for some level of magnanimity and healing from politicians, security operatives, and the Government of Uganda for the victims and families directly affected. As one who exercised my due constitutional right, lining up for 3 and half hours in the Ugandan sun to cast my vote, my expectations remain overwhelmingly high as well.

I’d like to commend Ugandans for keeping calm. It’s now time to demand or the voice of the people from all the appointees irrespective of which party they represent; but definitely an even greater demand on the NRM Government; a call for them to deliver on the requests of “what Ugandans really want and need”.

More of my thoughts as the days and events evolve…

God Bless Uganda!