afrol News, 14 February - The first multiparty elections in Uganda for two decades are "unlikely to be free and fair because of the government's ongoing harassment of the political opposition," human rights groups hold. President Museveni is accused of intimidation and of abusing the army as the election campaign is starting.

Despite impressive displays of independence from the Electoral Commission and the judiciary, Uganda's first multiparty elections in two decades have been "marred by intimidation of the opposition, military interference in the courts and bias in campaign funding and media coverage," the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said today.

"The ruling party under President Yoweri Museveni is playing a dirty game of intimidating the electorate and undermining the opposition," said of Human Rights Watch. "The illegal involvement of the army in the campaign scares the electorate, while the opposition has its hands tied by politically motivated criminal charges against its leaders."

Uganda on 23 February is to organise its first multi-party presidential poll since President Museveni came to power in 1986. In 1996 and 2001, Ugandans were allowed to vote for several presidential candidates, but political parties were still banned. The last two presidential polls were marred by violence against the opposition and most probably massive electoral fraud.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Ugandan military "continues to throw a shadow over the 2006 elections." The Electoral Offences Squad is investigating both the government and the opposition parties for abuses, though accusations against the opposition are less serious. The government has however not left anything untried to stop the opposition's popular candidate Kizza Besigye from challenging President Museveni.

Since his return to Uganda from exile in South Africa in October, Mr Besigye has faced criminal charges in both civil and military courts for treason, rape and terrorism. The Constitutional Court ruled that he and his civilian co-defendants could not be tried for terrorism in military courts, but the military is insisting it has the right to try civilians on similar grounds. Civilian and military prosecutors allege that while in exile, Mr Besigye led an effort to create a rebel movement to topple the Museveni government.

In some parts of northern Uganda, where an insurgency has terrorised and displaced almost two million people, Human Rights Watch heard reports of army officers threatening to withdraw government troops if the ruling party does not win, and leave residents at the mercy of the insurgents. Further, the group has documented the intimidation and assault of opposition supporters and independent candidates by the ruling party, as well as harassment by security forces.

The ruling National Resistance Movement-Organisation (NRM-O) has ruled a de facto single party state until last year, when it accepted a return to multi-party democracy while at the same time lifting the presidential term limits. "The Ugandan elections are in effect a multi-party contest in a single party state," commented Mr Rone. "When the ruling party has unhindered access to government funds, illegally uses government assets such as vehicles to campaign, and receives six times as much TV coverage as the opposition, there is no level playing field."

A Ugandan government spokesman today dismissed the conclusions by Human Rights Watch as "absolutely biased". Robert Kabushenga told reporters in Kampala today that the New York-based rights group instead wanted to influence the outcome of the elections. "The timing of the report and the manner it is written is absolutely biased," Mr Kabushenga said.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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