Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement party swept the local council elections to claim over 90 per cent of village leadership positions across the country, including in hitherto opposition strongholds.

This was despite what many have described as a chaotic process in over 60,000 villages that took part in the July 10 polls.

Elections at this level had not been held in one-and-a half decades. A number of factors dictated both failure to hold them and now finally their successful completion, observers say.

The electoral commission ignored protests from local observers and the European Union on the polling method used, with villagers lining up behind their preferred candidate.

There was drama too as some supporters decided to change queues at the last minute.

According to Wandera Ogalo, a former member of the East African Legislative Assembly, the elections present President Yoweri Museveni with an opportunity to play a key role in the next general election, securing his incumbency and the NRM.

Mr Ogalo was part of the president’s legal team when Dr Kizza Besigye challenged the results of the 2001 elections but later decamped to join Dr Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), which he represented in parliament, he also joined its legal team in subsequent electoral challenges against President Museveni.

The NRM won 86 per cent of Women Councils and over 90 per cent of village chairpersons.

Voting in some 600 villages was suspended after chaos over the electoral register.

What does this resounding victory mean for the NRM and the opposition parties?

Ignoring the chaos reported in some stations, the village councils now provide the NRM with a countrywide network of legally elected officials — in effect party functionaries to carry out its bidding in any subsequent elections.

The added advantage is that the party can now legally spend taxpayer shillings on its members up to the grassroots levels — a practice that had previously raised questions.

Impeccable timing

Every elected village chairperson is empowered to select his own executive, which is ratified by the villagers largely by acclamation.

The council is made up of 11 officials who include representatives for youth, women, persons with disability and the elderly.

With an election in 2021 (subject to a decision of the Constitutional Court, which may decide to affirm an extension to 2023), the revival of the Local Council structures could not have been timed better, observers say.

Already, the government has agreed to provide village officials with bicycles (an important means of transport in rural areas where the price of acquiring one is prohibitive for the majority) and a monthly stipend of Ush250,000 ($66).

Other incentives include small charges for reference letters and a stamp duty commission especially on land transactions, which are unregulated, making the position even more attractive.

These benefits and the fact that the structures provide a convenient conduit for partisan resource transfer are bound to come in handy.

At the height of public anger in December last year at the amending of the Constitution to remove age limits for candidates for the presidency and extending the term of government for an extra two years, a petition filed by a party functionary successfully blocked the holding of the elections.

James Tweheyo, who at the time worked at the NRM Secretariat, opposed the holding of the elections, arguing that since schools were still in session and that exams were coming up, the elections would prove disruptive. The electoral commission did not challenge the petition raising suspicions of collusion.

Significantly, this past Tuesday’s elections took place when schools were in session.

Cold calculation

Again, there is perception that the Local Council elections constitute a missed opportunity for the opposition.

In 2007, the opposition FDC through the chairman of its electoral commission challenged plans to hold the elections arguing that the law that the government relied on at the time was invalid after the country had embraced multipartyism in 2006.

That petition contributed to delaying the polls before concerns about money to conduct them and bureaucratic delays in enacting a new law compounded the problem.

Critics argue, however, that part of the reason was NRM’s cold calculation of its chances at the polls.

Crispy Kaheru, a co-ordinator of the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) said that the “opposition has lost a big opportunity. They should have taken this election a lot more seriously than they did.”

The CCEDU, which had its accreditation to observe the elections withdrawn on the eve of the polls over accusations of partisanship, added; “Politically, these elections and particularly the results mean that the incumbent party has a huge mobilisation machinery across the country. It has nothing to do with claims that these structures will be an effective neighbourhood watch mechanism; far from it, they will serve the ruling party’s politics effectively.”

The CCEDU also voiced criticism of the queue voting system, which it said, rolled back democratic gains and was likely to lead to conflict within communities.

Independents, many leaning towards the ruling party, performed better than the opposition combined, helping to consolidate the ruling NRM’s dominance of all elective offices from national to village level.