President Museveni, who is also the chairman of the NRM, called on contenders who are not satisfied with the results from the MP primaries to get facts so they can be used to bring those who were involved in election malpractice to book.
The president acknowledged that some “shallow people” took advantage of loopholes within the electoral system to cheat in the elections, but there is still room to prevent them from benefiting from what he termed as “shallow schemes”.
“Unfortunately, there are shallow people who resort to shallow schemes to steal the power of the people. These do the following: bribing, intimidation, altering declaration forms, even attacking and injuring people, using the underage to vote, importing voters from other areas etc.,” Museveni said in a late Saturday tweet, adding that such illicit activities are easy to expose.
“These are all shallow schemes that are easy to expose. The 2nd Law of Moses says: ‘Thou shalt not worship idols.’ The emphasis put on DR forms is worshipping idols.”
On that background, he asked aggrieved candidates to put together all the evidence so that criminal proceedings can be initiated.
“Therefore, the aggrieved candidates, get facts from a sample of villages from your village agents, who must speak truthfully otherwise they will also be charged with aiding and abetting a fraud as well as making false declarations, the Police will cross-check and criminal proceedings will be initiated,” he said.
“The same with other crimes- bribery, intimidation, assaults etc.; just get facts. We should not allow crooks to pollute our massive force that you saw yesterday. Down with crooks. I am not Tanga Odoi but my entering from the criminal side, which is my Constitutional duty as President, will help Tanga Odoi. Help us with the facts.”
While for the most part the primaries were carried out in an organized manner, there are cases where violence was registered and people got hurt. For instance, the Minister of Labour Mwesigwa Rukutana, his three escorts and a driver are currently in a holding cell for shooting an opponent’s supporter.
Rukutana, who had been an MP for Rushenyi constituency since 2001, lost to Naome Kabasharira.
The State minister of finance for Investments Evelyn Anite also took to Twitter Saturday afternoon to claim that the mafia was behind her loss of Koboko Municipality representation in parliament.
The boisterous minister, who lost to Dr. Charles Ayume, tweeted: “To the mafias & haters, I concede you’ve won the battle by stealing my victory but the war rages on.”
In his message, President Museveni congratulated the candidates that participated in the elections and hailed them for exhibiting the meaning of democracy. “Greetings and congratulations on the massive turn-out. You showed the world what democracy means. I congratulate those who won. I also congratulate those that did not win but who participated,” he said.