Daily Monitor
Sunday January 17 2021
NRM presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni addresses a gathering in Busia Town on December 1, 2020. PHOTO | KELVIN ATUHAIRE.
Summary
President Museveni clinched his sixth term of office after beating 10 other opponents. If he serves the entire term, the victory will see him serve as President for a period of 40 years. Derrick Kiyonga explores how the NRM candidate managed to win.
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In 1996, when President Museveni was casting his vote in the presidential race, he sported military attire.
He asked the voters to enable him make that transformation from a military leader into a civilian president.
Mr Museveni won easily by shrugging off competition from Democratic Party’s (DP) Paul Kawanga Semogerere.
The East African
Monday January 11 2021
Human rights defenders at a press conference in Nairobi on November 20, 2020, where they spoke against police brutality in Uganda. When Bobi Wine was arrested in November on allegations of breaking social distancing rules while on the campaign trail, riots broke out in different parts of Uganda. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Summary
Each of the five direct elections the country has had since 1996 have been marred by widespread vote-rigging, gerrymandering, violence and other unconventional barriers.
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Elections in Uganda have always been controversial. When the Catholic-leaning Democratic Party and its leader Benedicto Kiwanuka won the first election in 1961 just before Independence, the Anglican-aligned colonial government muddied the waters and arranged fresh elections the following year. They were dutifully won by the Anglican Uganda Peoples’ Congress and Milton Obote.