Uganda votes for change
2005-07-29 15:08
Kampala - Ugandan voters overwhelmingly endorsed sweeping democratic reform in a referendum to restore multi-party politics but in near-record low numbers, according to preliminary results seen by AFP on Friday.
Early returns from Thursday's poll compiled by the national electoral board showed an average turnout of less than 30% of voters, more than 90% of whom supported ending a nearly 20-year ban on political parties.
The results, from 2 579 of the country's 16 486 polling stations, are not definitive, but election officials said they expected to see similar voting trends from the rest of the East African nation.
No official results released yet
And, the figures, which revealed a turnout of 27.8%, with "yes" ballots accounting for 90.8% of votes and "no" votes accounting for 9.3%, mirror pre-referendum predictions from observers.
The election board has not yet released any official returns but its chairperson on Thursday acknowledged turnout had been very light while stressing the vote had been peaceful.
Ugandan newspapers also reported extremely low voter participation, between 10% and 20%, in many constituencies but shied away from attributing the poor showing to any one factor.
The opposition had called for a boycott of the referendum, arguing it was an unnecessary expense and illegal, although confusion over the ballot and heavy rains in much of the country were also cited as reasons for voters staying home.
Turnout figures expected to increase
The secretary of the election board, Sam Rwakakoojo, said on Friday he expected the turnout figures to rise to at least 40% as more results were reported to Kampala.
"My indications are that the turnout was way better than what is being said," he said.
In Uganda's last referendum on political change in 2000, more than 50% of voters chose to retain President Yoweri Museveni's "no-party democracy" system.
This time around, Museveni had actively campaigned to repeal the ban on political parties he imposed on coming to power in a 1986 coup and although the "yes" side appeared to have won a healthy victory, the low turnout is likely to be an embarrassment for the former guerrilla leader.