Museveni says poll outcome will decide ruling party’s future

Ugandans went to the polls on Thursday to vote in a referendum which will decide the country’s future political system. However there were mixed reports regarding voter turnout. While Ugandan radio reported an “enthusiastic” turnout in Kampala, correspondents on the spot said voting had been slow. Kampala was hit by intermittent rainfall on Thursday which may have been a contributing factor. “Due to the rain, the voter turnout is still low, but we hope most people will turn up later,” Herman Wamala, a poll agent in Wandegeya, near Kampala, told IRIN. Ugandans are voting to decide whether to keep the ruling single party Movement system, or usher in a multiparty system. Hilda Nasubuga, a Kampala student, voting for the first time, told IRIN the government was using the past to “scare” people from voting for multipartyism. “Some of us are not bothered by what happened in the past because we were not involved. That’s why I am going to vote for the multiparty system,” she said. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the outcome of the referendum would determine the future of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). “If there are no problems in the organisation of the elections or natural causes like rain preventing all the registered voters from casting their ballots, and the Movement gets less than 60 percent, I will know there is a serious problem with the Movement system,” he told IRIN in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “But we shall make a judgement after looking at the results and the voter turnout,” he added. The president said his countrywide campaigning for the referendum had shown that the ruling party was popular “because of what we have achieved in the last 14 years”. According to Ugandan radio, voter turnout was low in areas outside the capital. The Electoral Commission on Wednesday said there were 9.6 million registered voters countrywide. Final results are expected on Saturday.