Besigye called upon all Ugandans to remain vigilant and more so stick around the polling stations even after casting their votes
As worries of voting rigging continue to pop up, the former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party president, Dr Kizza Besigye has urged Ugandans not to leave the polling stations after casting their votes.
Besigye made the remarks while appearing on NBS TV’s Morning Breeze show on Monday. He said that the ruling NRM party has mastered the art of rigging votes and they are ready to utilise any opportunity left by Ugandans to make their dream possible.
As a result, Besigye called upon all Ugandans to remain vigilant and more so stick around the polling stations even after casting their votes to be in a position to witness any form of rigging.
“A dormant citizen becomes a slave, you must be active, go and vote and see that your paper is not destroyed, until they count your vote and announce it,” Besigye said.
“Your enthusiasm shouldn’t stop at throwing the ballot in the box. Let us place the votes in the ballot, I vote from Rukungiri, I will drive there to go and vote. If it was a free and fair election, you would vote and go home. You have to be there because even our polling agents will be arrested.”
Besigye who described Uganda’s elections as a strange animal tasked the general public to engage in a populous struggle against elections provided for in the Constitution.
He said that a democratic election as stated in the Constitution is supposed to be free and fair with one body having full control over the whole process but the evidence is clear that the Electoral Commission is operating under directives from the ruling government.
“This is some strange animal. Not an election provided for in our Constitution. Make sure you tell everybody around you the dynamics of what is happening in the country, the people in charge like the EC won’t do it,” Besigye added.
“People must be prepared to say enough is enough. It must be a populous struggle. As long as we all don’t understand what the problem is, we will keep blaming each other.”
Meanwhile, this comes at a time when the Commission last week directed that all individuals will be required to leave the polling stations immediately after casting their votes.
Justice Byabakama the Commission’s Chairperson said that this has been done to limit any form of congestion at particular stations that might culminate into the further spread of the COVID-19.
