KAMPALA.
President Museveni and chairperson of ruling National Resistance Movement(NRM) has slammed the chairperson of the party Electoral Commission over the mess registered during last Thursday internal polls .
According Mr Museveni ,Mr Odoi could have corrected the mess earlier if he had the will to do .
“What happens to the flagbearers who were fraudulently declared? Why doesn’t Tanga Odoi change and announce the proper results? Remember that the voting was by lining up during the day, and everybody saw the results.
How does anybody change that, other than making oneself a fool?” Mr Museveni said in a statement on his X(formerly) Twitter.
He said his lawyers had advised that Odoi, a former Makerere University don “cannot be the one who corrects a mistake that he made.”
“It is the lawyers’ committee (the Tribunal), that will deal with politics and the Law. They will, of course, be guided by the same facts that guided ISO and CID in arresting the criminals and charging them. Therefore, those affected by the mistakes of the mistake-makers should know that their grievances are already being addressed.
Everything will be rectified. It is just the facts and evidence that will conclude the matter,” Mr Museveni added.
Security operatives have arrested some party members accused of altering results, voter bribery and interfering with the registers in the recently concluded party elections.
The President said the actions of the suspects were criminal and also distorted the politics and the law of elections.
“What was crucial and urgent was the criminal side of committing fraud by altering results, using violence and bribery. The state structures, such as ISO and CID, have already helped us by arresting the criminals and charging them. What remains are the political and legal aspects.,he said
Opposition members have in the past accused Mr Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, of rigging elections to extend his rule.
Commenting on the NRM elections two days ago, opposition chief, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, who is the president of the leading opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP), claimed that most of the NRM members complaining about their votes being stolen have persistently been dismissing Opposition’s demand for electoral integrity in the country that has never witnessed a peaceful transfer of power from one president to another.
“They have been quiet or dismissive whenever we have demanded the withdrawal of the military from partisan politics. In fact, they cemented this recently when they passed the UPDF Amendment Bill! They came out fire blazing when we called for an audit of the stolen 2021 election.
When we condemned the blatant violations in Oyam, in Omoro, in Kisoro, in Soroti, in Serere, in Kawempe! They have boldly defended the incredible levels of ballot stuffing and other despicable actions done with so much impunity.
They celebrated when the people’s victory was grabbed on gunpoint in Kayunga. They rejoiced when NRM carried out its activities unhinged, while our activities are blocked with the greatest impunity,” he said.
Several veteran politicians who contested in last week’s NRM polls and lost have disputed the results, with many threatening to contest as Independent candidates in the 2026 general election after their victory was stolen through “corruption, use of the army to intimidate supporters, violence from contending camps and altering of registers,” among others.