Election violence blamed on ‘’livelihood’’ nature of Uganda’s politics
Photo Courtesy ; Daily Monitor
By Sulaina Nakidde
Political analysts have blamed election violence witnessed in the just concluded National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries on livelihood nature of Uganda’s politics.
This comes as results from the elections for parliamentary flag bearers conducted on Thursday continue to be held in a number of constituencies due to disagreement between candidates over alleged violence and malpractice.
Some of areas with contested election results include Isingiro where the NRM Electoral Commission Chairperson Dr Tanga Odoi yesterday suspended the vote tallying District Woman MP.
This was after the two candidates Justine Ayebazibwe and Lilian Ruteraho failed to harmoniously agree in the provisional outcome of the results.
Speaking to KFM, Dr Sarah Birete, and the Chairperson of the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors says there is need to address the issue of election monetisation to stop politicians from regarding these elective positions as sources of wealth.
This, Dr Birete says, makes elections a do-or die matter for many
“Extreme commercialization of politics contributes to violence in elections, it has become a do or die, somebody has mortgaged their house they must make sure they rescue that house for their family, if they lose it maybe the marriage might collapse because there are always these disagreements at family level but otherwise if people had a sportsman spirit were in this competition could go either way then we would have no violence come, ‘’ says Dr Birete .
