[Ugnet] Who to blame time......Museveni or Mutale!!

[B Wambuga]

Netters,

It's stock taking time now that the entire referendum thing has flopped. Or did it? Or did the dictator as usual on knowing that he would loose if he had stayed on the wrong (No) side, decided to play safe by sticking with the "Yes" side?

It seems to me that cunning as he is, the dictator knowing that his time was getting deemer and, the sun setting out in the west was here, decided to go with the flow only if he could buy just a little bit of time. His unrelenting persuite for the "Yes" vote was not genuine, even to the unsuspecting eyes of the Ugandan population. The entire project between him and Mutale was to cause as much confusion as they could, but ensure that not both of them were really caught on the wrong side. A case for arguement is that when dictator Museveni made the pronouncement in Kyankwanzi about opening up the political space, Mutale never raised a finger that it was foul play by the dictator.

Now comes the referendum, Mutale makes a big deal out of it. And now that the exercise is all done, albeit with with gross unestimation of the Ugandan population intelligence and understanding of politics, everyone who was fooled and coopted into this massive fraud is beginning to find where to lay the blame.

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Mutale, EC caused low voter turnout’

By Moses Nsubuga
If it were not for Maj. Roland Kakooza Mutale and the Government, Ugandans would have overwhelmingly participated in the just concluded referendum, Kiboga political leaders have said.
“It is absurd to note that the tree symbol for which the Government had advocated was confused by Mutale. He confused residents by telling them not to vote for the tree yet the Government was for the tree. Many people were confused on these two side,” Dan Kiwalabye, the Kiboga East Member of parliament said.
“In 2001, people voted massively but this time there was a lot of confusion because there was little public education about the exercise,” Kiwalabye said.
He added that if the government had stepped in to stop Mutale and his campaign against opening up of the political space, many people would have overwhelmingly voted.
The Resident District Commissioner, Margaret Kasaija, accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of not conducting enough civic education about the referendum saying this had led to failures in the voting process.
“Can you imagine people did not know what a referendum was? It is as if EC never carried any mobilisation about the exercise,” Kasaija said.
However, a 67-year-old woman, Flavia Namagembe, excited Kasaija at Wattuba polling station when she said she had voted a tree because it was advocated by President Yoweri Museveni.
“There is no way I can refuse to vote President Museveni’s tree when I got rich during his regime,” she said.
Ends

Published on: Sunday, 31st July, 2005

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B. Wambuga wa Balongo

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