By Simon Komakech

President Yoweri Museveni who doubles as the NRM National Chairman has congratulated UPC’s Dr. Euince Apio, MP-elect for Oyam North following her win in the Thursday polls.

Dr. Apio beat NRM’s Junior Engola by a thin margin.

In a message Friday, the President said “Congratulations to our allies, the UPC and for the candidate, Eunice Apio, for winning the Oyam by-elections.”

“Congratulations also to the NRM and the candidate Engola Junior because the difference between the two was very small,” he said.

If UPC cheated in any way, the President added that “the NRM can follow the legal channels.”

He condemned and demanded action against the law-breakers that are said to have ticked the ballots on behalf of the voters.

“This is treason and no NRM should ever take part in that crime,” he said, and added that “It is the Opposition that has been doing that around Kampala, with the incompetent NRM officials failing to catch them.”

“If the voters cannot do so genuinely and influence the choice of the candidates and Parties, then how can the People guarantee their future and discipline leaders? This is why the NRM went to the bush. Vote rigging, bribery, violence, lies, etc., must be banished from our elections. I insist that all voting must be electronic, using the thumb prints. How, then, does the pre-ticking come in? Are some People still allowing non- electronic voting?”

According to Museveni, “UPC has been, in recent years, positive and not disruptive and so has DP been.”

“That is why I congratulate them, although I would have preferred the NRM to win. Nevertheless, both the UPC and the DP should pay attention to what I said at Icheme recently. The sabotage of the UNC by the DP in 1954 and the sabotage of the UNLF in 1980 by both the UPC and the DP, denied Uganda a broad-based political force that could guarantee peace in Uganda, the way Tanu and Afro-Shirazi did in Tanzania. The two of them, again, since 1994 (the CA time), have been trying to sabotage the broad-based NRM but the People of Uganda have rejected their efforts,” the President said.

Therefore, he noted that “the surviving UPC and DP members -people like Rwakasisi, John Kawanga, and Joyce Ssebugwawo (KY) – should sensitize their members about the historical mistakes that disadvantaged Uganda.”