Nicholas Salmons
12/4/09
With elections coming in 2011, there have been challenges made for the Ugandan government to reform many aspects of itself - particularly in election legislation - to help ensure a more fair and peaceful process. In the past, Ugandan politicians have used violence, intimidation, bribery, and even torture to gain vote power (nothing very uncommon). Also in the past, the level of accountability that has been required for those committing these crimes has been very low (one such politician who had a detention room in his own home for "persuading" voters in 2006 was instated as the Ugandan minister of internal affairs in January, putting him in charge of the Ugandan police force and security measures for the upcoming elections). Human Rights Watch has called for new measures to be taken in remedying the situation such as expediting non-partisan investigations and prosecutions, preventing the Ugandan military from heavy involvement in the election (due to recent reports of unnecessary force being used against protesters and rioters), and extending the timeframe allowed for prosecution electoral offenses.
This article, to me, provides a very good example of how the previously read statement that "Africa needs to clean up its own house" seems a bit absurd. While I don't necessarily think any one other country would be able to solve all of Africa's (in this case Uganda's) problems, I do think that what is being done does not have the continent's best interests in mind. I also find it interesting in an ironic sense that this country is holding elections (theoretically democratic) while using totalitarian techniques of campaigning. It makes me wonder a bit about the US.
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