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Citizen Posts
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By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
Fraud and Force! Machiavelli said people rise in politics more through fraud than force. But in Uganda both fraud and force have been combined effectively for the Movement to retain power for decades.
This is despite the fact that Movement leaders promised Ugandans that there would be no more stealing of elections. Unfortunately fraud and force have made elections in Uganda a farce. Ugandan do not really choose their leaders. Others choose for them. Many have decided never to be involved in the electoral processes because they have been made to perceive that their choices do not matter.
They assume long before elections that their choices will of no consequence on the determination of who is elected or not elected. The reason for this perception is that many times those who win are cast as losers and those who lose are cast as winners. This may explain the enormous ethical and moral decay in leadership and governance in Uganda. Indeed, good governance is a distant possibility in our lifetime.
In South Africa, the role of the African National Congress (ANC) was, since the early 1990s, dear to the black Africans. Force and fraud were not necessary for the party to rule. However, this year’s elections in South Africa have shown love alone is not enough for the regime to keep power.
Where there is no fraud and force but the power of the ballot paper seems to have supplanted the strict hold onto power. In Uganda choice of leadership via the ballot paper has been undermined by the partnership between fraud and force thereby ensuring the Movement keeps power a little longer than the ANC has in South Africa.
Indeed, the President of Uganda once said, during a political campaign in Seeta Mukono, that a vote, a mere piece of paper, cannot remove him from power. That left “fraud and force” as the joint determinants of leadership and governance in the country. To restore the power of the vote, Ugandans will have to find a way to erode the centrality of fraud and force in the electoral processes.
Hopefully, fraud and force will not find their way into the electoral processes of South Africa. They have jointly exacted so much harm on Ugandans for decades.
For God and My Country.
