Amid complaints, Ugandan leader reelected

President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner on Feb. 25 in Uganda's first multiparty election in 25 years, but the opposition claimed its own tally had the incumbent trailing in a ballot that observers say was marred by government abuses. Museveni supporters celebrated in the streets, while police fired tear gas and bullets to chase off a stone-throwing crowd outside opposition headquarters. In power since 1986, Museveni lifted a presidential two-term limit so he could run again. A European Union mission criticized him for using all the resources of the government, including state-run TV and radio, to help his campaign and said the election was tainted by serious irregularities even though it was an improvement on past ballots. Electoral Commission Chairman Badru Kiggundu declared Museveni the winner, saying the president had 59 percent of the votes, opposition leader Kizza Besigye 37 percent and the three other candidates just over three percent. He said 99 percent of polling stations had reported. Besigye rejected the official results. He said tallies collected so far by his agents at the country's 19,786 polling stations showed him with 49 percent of the votes and Museveni with 47 percent. He said his party would complete its tally before deciding what step to take next. The campaign was "marked by gross unfairness," Besigye told journalists. "It is disgraceful that the government has chosen to abuse power and terrorize its opponents." The Democracy Monitoring Group, an independent Ugandan organization that deployed observers at most polling stations, said that there were extensive problems with voter lists. "It is evident that key government leaders and institutions were not prepared to embrace political pluralism," the group said. The election "had several shortcomings which rendered the exercise short of our expectation of a free and fair contest."