Dissatisfaction in election results...

I don't know where the people's president and those who love him are, but I know that wherever they're God Almighty is keeping them safe...

Scenario: Help me out guys, if I buy something from you and I pay you, are you allowed to count through the money I can have paid you? Should you count it before or after you've put it in your pocket? What if you keep it without count it and it's not enough when you get home, do you complain? Who then can listen to such a complaint?

Fact: #FDC participated in a genuine election with various candidates expecting to win or loose to any candidate(s) who Ugandans think is worth leading them. The constitution allows them to have polling agents at every polling station and they are entitled to a copy of the declaration form just like any other candidates. When voting is done, all declaration forms countrywide are collected in one place, accounted and compared to what the Electoral Commission can have tallied. Should there be an discrepancies, #FDC is entitled to a complaint, just like anyone else. This now Mr. Kigundu says is illegal. And, to make it worse, all forms of quick delivery of information have been frustrated by Mr.Kigundu and his favorite candidate #Museveni so that no one has the ability to make a substantial complaint in time before announcing the winner tomorrow, and this makes me feel helpless. To further disorganise the already falling exercise of internally tallying votes, our president has been imprisoned with all who could have taken over from him in his absence.

Whoever buys something from anyone and forbids him or her to count through the money paid is a thief... so is anyone aspirant who contests with fellow aspirants and forbids them to count and verify their wins and losses.

Questions:
1) Should I believe the results Mr. Kigundu will give tomorrow as credible?
2) Amid so much impunity, does #Museveni even care about the attitude of Ugandans he leads or intends to lead after bending all laws and abusing power?
3) What if any other president you didn't vote did the same as what's been done this time around, what would you do?
4) Does patriotism still mean anything of importance to you and our leaders today?

Disappointment:
I am deeply disappointed in the electoral commission.
I am deeply disappointed in #Museveni.
I am deeply disappointed in the cause of the 1981-86 war.
I am deeply disappointed in the armed forces of Uganda that I've always trusted with my peace security.
I am deeply disappointed in our legal system that make victims offenders and offenders victims.

For good and my country.

Please share until they all know how we feel.

A National Dialogue is the path to a shared future... Bishop David Zac Niringiye

This afternoon, the Electoral Commission of Uganda declared Gen Y Museveni the winner of the 2016 Presidential Election. It is obvious even to casual observes that the elections were rigged.

The EU Observer Mission' Preliminary Report is clear.

http://eueom.eu/files/pressreleases/english/PreliminaryStatement_20160220.pdf

The Elections were rigged by state institutions and leaders in favour of Gen Y Museveni. The process was not credible. The result is not legitimate. A stolen election can not secure sustainable peace and a future of all Ugandans. It can not provide the basis of a stable and prosperous country.

That is why the immediate priority is a National Dialogue, to find a common path to a future that includes all! The Dialogue must address the critical issues that have divided the country, as the way to avert violence. Justice and equity are the way of peace! The Elders Forum and IRCU could build on the presidential debates and make the dialogue possible.

___________________________________
Kiggundu: The commission declares candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the elected President of Uganda this 20/Feb/2016

FINAL RESULTS:

Abed Bwanika 86, 075 (0.93%)
Baryamureeba Venansius 51,086 (0.55%)
Benon Biraaro 24,675 ( 0.27%)
Kizza Besigye  3,270,290 (35.37%)
Joseph Mabirizi 23,762 (0.26%)
Maureen Kyalya 40,598 (0.44%)
Amama Mbabazi 132,574 (1.23%)
Yoweri Museveni 5,617,503  (60.75%)

#UgandaDecides

DEMOCRACY IS ON TRIAL IN UGANDA

Press Statement

Message: The results of the presidential elections must be rejected Kampala, Uganda

—————————————————————————————————————————–

20 February 2016

Citizens of Uganda

My Fellow Africans

International Citizens and Friends of Uganda

Members of the Press Corps and the Diplomatic Community,

We have just witnessed what must be the most fraudulent electoral process in Uganda. We participated in this process to highlight and show the world quite how fraudulent this military regime is. The Electoral Commission is not independent and its technical incompetence and partisanship has been made clear for all to see. The voting material was not delivered in time. People were unlawfully removed from the Voters’ Register whilst ghosts were wantonly added. Freedoms of assembly and expression were wantonly curbed. We were not free to carry out our campaigns without intimidation and interference from the partisan Uganda Police Force and the NRM’s militia dubbed the Crime Preventers.

On election day, all access to social media platforms was switched off. This can only have been designed to impede transparency of the election. The popular mobile money platforms were also disabled, cutting millions of ordinary people off from their meager resources. This can only be described as illegal collective punishment, which is an offense under international law.

Then after the elections as the Electoral Commission started announcing falsified results when we called a press conference to show the world how the results that we had, results that were announced at polling stations in the presence of citizens and our own polling agents, the Uganda Police Force brutally stormed our offices and arrested the Party President, Maj. General Mugisha Muntu, our Chief Mobiliser, Ms. Ingrid Turinawe, and myself. We were detained without charge at Naggalama Police Station and whilst General Muntu and I were released late in the night, Ms. Turinawe was detained overnight.

Today I am under house arrest. My home is sealed off and I am not allowed to leave. Nobody is allowed to access my home. I am also under some kind of electronic blockade. I am unable to access any form of internet service in my house.

Generally, the regime is baring its bloodied fangs and claws for all to see. This has not been an electoral process. This is a creeping military coup.

I

What must be done

I have come to ask for two things:

The results of the presidential elections must be rejected by the international community.

An international commission should be established to audit the results of the elections.

A Profound Faith in Democracy

While I address you as a presidential candidate, I greet you today as human rights and a pro-democracy activist. As you know, I have dedicated my adult life to the struggle for democracy in Uganda.

2

I come from the generation which beliefs that democracy is the gateway to human rights and human dignity and to the rule of law, and to tolerance and pluralism. Any government which claims to derive its mandate from the people must believe and practice democracy.

Anyone who believes in human dignity, and who believes that we are all created in the image of God and that we all stand equal before the law, must be believe and practice democracy.

Anyone who believes in Pan-Africanism and the dignity of the African person, and that an African has the equal claim to life as any person on this earth, must believe and practice democracy.

And to those friends around the world who wish Africa well and who believe in the dignity of the African continent, they too must believe in democracy and the inalienable right of the African to enjoy it and to live by the universal democratic creed.

I believe deeply in my heart that the African Renaissance will never happen without democracy. I believe profoundly that the East African Federation would be stillborn without democracy.

Sir Winston Churchill once said that the empires of the future will be the empires of the mind. That was true and profound. I hasten to reframe that statement. The empires of the future will be the empires of democracy.

No one can be a full citizen of the 21 st century without enjoying the full blessings of democracy. Any Image claim to the contrary is false.

There can be no citizenship without democracy.

Democracy on Trial in Uganda

Today democracy is on trial in Uganda. The evidence is all around us.

The most sacred right of a citizen is the right to vote peacefully and freely. There is no greater right in a free and open society. It’s upon the right to vote that all other democratic rights are anchored. Today the right to vote—and the right to do so peacefully—has been wantonly violated in Uganda.

That violation should be a profound moral offense to all of us.

A profound offense to all the citizens of Uganda. And it is an offense to all Africans and to all global citizens.

When you violate the rights of an African to vote, you insult his and her humanity and you rob him of his human dignity. That was the fundamental offense of colonialism: the odious practice, and the insulting belief, that an African could be a subject but never a citizen.

Today in Uganda, the right to vote—the very essence of citizenship—has been violated with impunity.

International Community asked to sanction impunity and human rights violations

And the international community has been asked to sanction those gross human rights violations.

You have been asked to sanction elections that are neither free nor fair nor credible.

3

And there is only one logic to that request: that African lives do not matter. And that an African can live without democracy or human dignity.

Instead of democracy, the logic goes, an African would rather receive international charity.

Instead of democracy, an African would rather be trained in post-conflict resolution.

By ratifying these sham elections, the international community is being invited to become a partner in the violations of the African people.

I am therefore here to ask the international community to have the courage to defend the millions of Ugandans—the youth and the elderly—who had the courage to vote. Let them know that it’s not a crime to be an African.

Please reject the temptation to ratify these sham elections.

But should you ratify the results of these sham elections, at least, have the courage to admit that you do not care about democracy or human rights in Africa.

No one who can sanction these elections can credibly profess to be for democracy or for human rights in Africa. I am greatly heartened by the fact that the International Observer missions from the AU, the EU, and the Commonwealth have all, in their preliminary reports indicated that this exercise has not been free, fair, transparent or credible.

I urge you, on behalf of the brave citizens of Uganda, to reject the results of these sham elections.

To my brothers and sisters across Africa, I urge you to stand with the people of Uganda and to assert the rights of every African to live in a free and democratic society.

To my fellow Ugandans, I salute your courage and thank you for your support and for believing in democracy and peace. Democracy is the only path to peace and prosperity and to the rule of law. Remain vigilant and steadfast. The struggle is long and hard but, in the end, we shall win if we continue in our patient and steadfast resolve. The regime cannot survive without our co-operation. Let us denounce this electoral theft by withdrawing our recognition of the regime and ceasing to co-operate with it.

Let us have the strength and the courage to finish this struggle. I  mow deep in my heart that Uganda shall be free!

One Uganda! One People!

For God and My Country.

Dr. Kizza Besigye

Kampala, Uganda 20 February 2016

Human Rights, Right to Development.

In order to answer the question ‘Do people have a right to development?’ we need to look at the document which defines what human rights are. TheUniversal Declaration on Human Rightswas agreed in 1948 after the end of the Second World War to bring nations together to promote peace and protect human life.

The Declaration is the first articulation of human rights and states that:

Human rights are universal - the birth right of all human beings.Human rights focus on the inherentdignity and equal worth of all human beings.All human rights are equal, indivisibleand interdependent (UN General Assembly, 1948).

In this context International Human Rights Law serves as:

A beacon - pulling states towards accepting human rightsA safety net - to supplement the national legal systemA basis - to ‘mobilise shame’ of the international community

The application of international human rights frameworks means that governments are (or should be) heldaccountable for their actions. There are four categories of Human Rights obligations of the State:

Respecting a right means that a state must not violate a particular right.Protecting a right means that a state has to prevent violations of that right by non-state actors.Fulfilling a right means that a state has to take all appropriate measures (allocate resources), to the realisation of that right.Promoting a right means that a state must educate the public and raise awareness about that right.

The UN convened the first World Conference on Human Rights in 1968 which recognised that for:

“the achievement of lasting progress the implementation of human rights is dependent upon sound and effective national and international policies of social and economic development” (United Nations, 1968).

This was taken forward by Judge Keba M’Baye from Senegal who in 1972 advocated that development should be viewed as a right. He persisted with this claim and secured a 1977 UN Commission on Human Rights resolution for a study to be conducted on the right to development as a human right.

In the 1980’s development economist Amartya Sen began writing about entitlements and deprivation in relation to famine and argued that famine was not the result of a lack of food, but of inequalities in the way in which food was distributed. Attention was thus drawn to a human rights approach to development based on the principles of social justice and equity which culminated in the UN Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986.

Last week we showed you the definition of development agreed at the 1986 UNDeclaration on the Right to Development. The following are key features of theDeclaration:

The human person is identified as the beneficiary of the right to development, as of all human rights.The right to development can be invoked both by individuals and by peoples.It imposes obligations both on individual States - to ensure equal and adequate access to essential resources - and on the international community - to promote fair development policies and effective international cooperation.

The Right to Development includes six principles:

full sovereignty over natural resourcesself-determinationpopular participation in developmentnon-discriminationequality of opportunity for developmentthe creation of favourable conditions for the enjoyment of other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights

We will come back to the issues of natural resources in the final week of the course and the extent to which the other principles have been upheld.

All thanks to:
University of Aberdeen.