KAMPALA — Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga has described as dangerous propaganda and debunked talk of sectarian voting in Buganda where the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) old guards were wiped out by Bobi Wine’s National Unit Platform party.
Over 30 NRM MPs including many cabinet ministers and the vice-president, lost their seats, largely to candidates from Bobi Wine’s NUP.
The region also massively voted against the president, forcing the ruling party leaders including Mike Mukula who is the NRM Central Executive Committee vice chairman for eastern Uganda to allege tribal undertones.
President Museveni too who had enjoyed uninterrupted support in Buganda for the past 35 years alleged sectarianism as one of the reasons he was rejected by voters.
Commenting on the tribal links, Katikkiro Mayiga who is the kingdom’s Prime Minister said that thumping NRM in the region is a sign that there are areas which those in leadership need to address.
“I don’t think the blame game is useful…saying that people are sectarian and were not voting NRM is totally wrong. In any case there is no area in Uganda where people are voted when they are not ethnically in that area like it is in Buganda. We have had many MPs who are not Baganda who have been elected in Buganda through the years, which is not very common in other areas,” Katikkiro told reporters, describing promoters of such as saboteurs.
PM Mayiga said the region has many issues that need to be addressed—pointing out a very broken health system, poverty, unemployment and the unsatisfactory education system.
He also reasoned that whoever is fronting the tribal views should first question why Bobi Wine was voted for in Kamuli and other parts in Busoga and Museveni voted for highly in Western Uganda.
The polls body said the incumbent, who has been in power since 1986, got a new mandate after he won with a contested 58.64 percent of the vote.
His closest challenger, Bobi Wine, won 34.83% of the vote. Bobi Wine has been put under house arrest with no food.
Bobi Wine said that the results were doctored, claiming that among other things, armed security officers had given people pre-ticked ballot papers.
Opposition party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) also called the election “fraudulent.”
It’s a major achievement for a party that’s barely six months old and almost didn’t make it on the ballot when it was accused by government officials of being an illegal entity. While longtime President Museveni has been declared the winner of a sixth term, the rise of the NUP marks a generational shift.
Bobi Wine’s party, which swept the central region that includes the capital, Kampala, as well as an enclave —Luweero and Nakaseke— that once was the launchpad of the war that brought Museveni to power.
