Observers land in Uganda ahead of January 14 elections

Monday, January 11, 2021 -A 74 man team from the East African Community EAC has landed in Uganda ready to keep an eye on the elections just days away.

The January 14, 2021 election pits long serving Yoweri Kaguta Museveni against his closest threat Robert Kyagulanyi or Bobi Wine who has vowed to take over using his youthful age bracket.

Announcing their presence in Uganda’s capital Kampala yesterday, the delegation clarified that their main mandate would be to oversee and report what they will have seen happen on the ground.

The mission, according to The Monitor, is to make sure Uganda carries out a free and fair exercise.

“It is not our role to change what Uganda does. Our work is to observe and report. We are coming for observation but where we can, we shall advise but you (Ugandans) must make your own decisions. The objective of the mission will be to observe the electoral process and offer a balanced assessment of the election,” Mr Domitien Ndayizeye, former president of Burundi and head of the EAC mission told journalists.

Other members in the team included East African Legislative Assembly, EALA, the East African Court of Justice, the EAC Secretariat and Electoral Management bodies among many others.

Ndavizeye however noted that the EAC member states are all sovereign and Uganda will follow their own electoral laws and that this must be followed properly.

“The independence of each country must be preserved. Do not think that this team in this mission is coming to give instructions to Uganda. We are coming to observe if the practice (of election) here is in conformity with the principle law of Uganda,” he added.

Observers from EAC must always be available anytime there is an election exercise within member states so that to strengthen integrity.