Dear Dr Muniini and Ms Anne Mugisha,
Please convey our appreciation and deep sense of gratitude to the leadership and all activists of the FDC, for the Herculean efforts, dedication and sacrifices in the last election. This was inspite of the constraints of funds, time, and the constant thuggish hurdles by the regime.
And of course we refuse to accept the officially declared results.
My greatest satisfaction came with the release of the tabulation by Prof Odwee of the Statistics Dept of Makerere University.
Would it have made any difference if we had the Professor's numbers right at the very close of the voting ? This has made made dramatic differences in other countries.
My suggestion is that next time around we shall commission an independent polling firm ( about US$50,000) to provide us with a tracking of opinion up to the election and, crucially, Exit polling during the voting.
For as Stalin said, the key in elections is who is counting, regardless of the manner of voting.
Vicente Fox of Mexico, fearing that the PRI would steal his election, commissioned not one but two polling firms. They announced his win within minutes of the close of the voting. The masses started jubilating and the PRI machinations were busted.
The way Western interests found out that the vote for the so-called Ukrainian Orange Revolution was being stolen was by using Exit polling.
And Germans announce only Exit polling results, and bureaucrats then take their time - weeks - to do the actual counting. For two generations they have had no discrepancies.
In Bolivia Evo Morales' win was based on Exit polls. A week later the vote had not even been actually counted.
Mr. Weah led the first round of the recent Liberia election.
On losing the run-off it was claimed that all other contestants ( four or five ?) had lined up behind him, but that all the supporters of these five had, en masse, joined the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's camp, insread of following their leaders to join Mr Weah.
This of course does not make any sense.
But the saddest part was that Mr Weah himself could not say by what percentage he had been cheated.
All he could show were a couple of ballots that had been snatched from some would be cheaters.
We have to thank Prof Odwee and his team for saving us such an embarrassment by providing us with concrete numbers of the extent of the stealing !! (Even if our returning officers were brutalised, bribed etc ....)
It is in such cases as the Liberia one that one appreciates the immense power of Exit polls.
Indeed, the UN uses Exit polling to check election results in 'third world' countries.
The robustness and the beauty underlying its mathematical and philosophical foundations is just astounding !!
It is a science that is a culminations of three centuries of effort that include, even, counting the number of stars in the universe !!
That is power and reliability.
You are talking about people like Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) of the 'bell curve' , one of the greatest minds of all time.
The most curious discrepancies between Exit polls and actual tallies have raised their ugly head, get this, only in the last three USA elections. Funny eh ?
And here I want to add to compatriot Anne Mugisha's Opinion article in the 'Uganda Weekly Observer' of March 19 to 25 titled "All eyes on the supreme court". It is curious why Sen John Kerry is only whispering that the last USA Presidential election was stolen but vehemently refuses to be quoted.
Former Senate Minority leader, Democrat Tom Daschle on the other hand has stated it categorically that even elections for Senators were stolen, including his.
In Uganda the fellow who has stolen our country has now become an emperor.
Stealing elections has become globalized.
A Ms Kawooya who was part of stealing our 2001 election is now with the UN. She was in the team that 'organized' Afghanistan's most recent election.
She was involved in the most recent Iraq elections in which petrol tankers were rolling from Iran, but instead of being filled with petrol they were filled with fake ballots for Ayatollah Sistani's puppets.
It is an incomprehensible world we now live in !!
For three days in Uganda Museveni locked himself with his henchmen behind closed doors to 'count' the votes.
Could anyone have expected him to announce that he had lost?
And forget the protestations of British imperialism, for they are still fully behind him. The man has delivered for them, whether in Congo or reversing our small gains of Independence under Obote and Idi Amin ( see Mzee Boniface Byanyima's weekly observer interview)
Meanwhile let us watch what will come out of the supreme court.
Ugandans have been through a five year war over stolen elections. To where do we now turn ?
Meanwhile we humbly send thanks to all in FDC that have served us so well. This goes too to the patriots in DP, UPC, CP etc....
Mitayo Potosi
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| Retiring from 20 years of Museveni commentary |
| April 3, 2006 |
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Dear Tingasiga: Sixteen years ago, when I began my letters to you through The Ugandan Newsletter and then, nine years ago, through The Monitor, I pledged to write what I believed, not what was politically correct. I promised to be loyal to the truth, not to massage the fragile egos of those whose policies and practices affected the lives of their fellow citizens. But once I came face to face with the betrayal of my faith, I remained loyal to my pledge to tell the truth and to fearlessly exercise my non-negotiable freedom of my conscience and speech. I was well aware that I would incur the wrath of those whose sensibilities I would offend with my pen. I knew that I would be labeled insane by many who, living in morbid fear of fellow men, would rather I joined them in their prison of silent acquiescence. But my congenital inability to remain silent in the face of injustice and treachery propelled me to make my small contribution to the struggle to expose the emperors nakedness. Whereas I leave it to others to judge the content and value of my contributions, I sleep very soundly and with a smile in the knowledge that I have fulfilled my promises. My conscience is very clear. There is very little left for me to say about the Museveni regime. It is corrupt through and through, rotten to the core, utterly illegitimate and run on the basis of lies. The arrogant thieves who stole money that was meant to help fellow citizens living with HIV/Aids are but part of a regime that has excelled in hollow declarations of patriotism while it sucks the blood out of the carcass of a country they profess to love. The arrest and torture of citizens by the regimes assorted armed organisations is an inevitable manifestation of a military dictatorship in civilian clothing, one whose contempt for the rule of law is only exceeded by its contempt for the truth. Retiring Really what is left for us to say when, for example, Robert Kabushenga of the Media Centre is working overtime to destroy what was left of the regimes positive image in the eyes of the world? The expulsion of Blake Lambert, the Canadian journalist who wrote for The Economist, was a classic sign of a regime that is afraid of its own shadow. If Kabushengas intent was to silence Lambert and to keep the world in the dark, the expulsion accomplished the opposite. The whole world now knows that the Museveni regime is a tin-pot dictatorship whose empty rhetoric about a free press no longer persuades. Need we really say more when Minister of Health Jim Muhwezi displays an arrogant disregard for the plight of Ugandans living with HIV/Aids? I beg your leave, Tingasiga, to take a well-deserved rest from commenting on the Museveni regimes transformation from a government of hope 20 years ago to a Mafia organisation that is dragging the country towards darkness. But before I turn my attention to other matters, I must express my deep gratitude and congratulations to Dr Kizza Besigye and the FDC for exposing the utter nakedness of the Museveni regime. With little money, but armed with limitless commitment to justice and freedom, these patriots have brought to the worlds attention the fraudulent means that the Museveni regime used to hang on to power. Well done ladies and gentlemen. We now await the verdict of the Supreme Court. But the court of public opinion, both local and international, has already pronounced its verdict on Museveni and his NRM. Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
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