By Timothy Nsubuga – 9^th-15^th Aug 2010

EC Boss Kigunddu

The opposition’s struggle to have the Kiggundu-led Electoral Commission [EC] disbanded and replaced before the next general elections scheduled for February 2011 took a new and ugly twist last week.

Some young extremists within the opposition IPC alliance who spoke to Uganda Correspondent in Kampala said as far as they were concerned, EC Boss Badru Kiggundu’s children are now legitimate targets for abduction and even torture.  This, they said, would now be their tactic of last recourse to force Kiggundu and his fellow EC Commissioners to resign and pave way for a new and credible EC.“Desperate times call for desperate measures.  And these are desperate times for the future of our country.  Through several peaceful protests, we have given Kiggundu and his team every opportunity to see sense and resign but they have stubbornly refused.  We shall now pinch them where it hurts most.  That is their loved ones and children”; said Jacob Baryamureba, one of the IPC young Turks.

Maj. General Kale Kayihura’s police force has indeed, on several occasions, violently broken up opposition protests against the EC.  The latest violent police crackdown on opposition protestors took place last week in several towns across the country.  It resulted in the arrest and detention of up to 80 demonstrators from the National Alliance for Free and Fair Elections [NAFFE].

The second IPC youth winger who spoke with an unmistakable West Nile accent but only identified himself Juma, was however quick to distance the IPC as an organisation from their plans.  “Our leaders in UPC, FDC, and CP have nothing whatsoever to do with our plan.  This is our future and this is our own initiative as the youth who have a bigger stake in this country.  We shall not allow Museveni and Kiggundu to send our country the Kenya way.  No way.  Enough is enough”; he said.

Uganda’s Electoral Commission has twice been unanimously singled out for serious criticism by Uganda’s Supreme Court.  Court found that the present EC had twice contravened electoral laws and as a result, failed to organise free and fair elections in both 2001 and 2006.  The criticisms in both cases came after Dr. Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s main political opponent in both elections, challenged Museveni’s re-election as President in court.

President Museveni has however, on several occasions, rejected the opposition’s call to reform the EC.  NRM Deputy Spokesperson Ofwono Opondo, for his part, told Uganda Correspondent in an interview two weeks ago that the opposition “slept” while Kiggundu’s team was being re-appointed.  So, he said, “…they must now lie in the thorny bed”.