President Yoweri Museveni and National Unity Platform President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine are set for duelling “national addresses”, Sunday evening.
Mr. Wine’s 8:00pm Sunday address confirmation came just hours after senior presidential press secretary Don Wanyama had tweeted, NOTICE: President Museveni to address the country this Sunday, March 14th, on matters of national interest, at 8pm.
Catch address on all TVs and radios”.
“Following the disruption of the internet and sudden power cut on Friday, I will be making the address today [Sunday] at 8pm,” reads a message dispatched by Bobi Wine across his social media platforms.
Mr. Wine called for peaceful protests, two months after Mr. Museveni who has ruled the country since 1986, was declared the winner of a disputed presidential election.
Museveni now is expected to address the country on national security
The vote was conducted under an internet blackout after campaigns where opposition candidates were routinely obstructed by police, and many people were shot dead by security forces.
Analysts have already identified a number of anomalies in official results, including an improbable turnout of 100 percent at more than 400 polling stations. Last week, while attempting to dispel rumours of rigging, the commission released one results’ form in which the numbers did not add up – suggesting that it had been altered to reduce the tally for Bobi Wine.
In February, the NUP leader lodged a court petition challenging the election results but later withdrew it, complaining that the judges were biased.
“We have brought the case back to the court of the people and the whole of Uganda must now sit and pass judgement,” he told his supporters recently.
Ugandan politics has been building towards this moment for months.
The opposition did not have trust in state institutions to organise a free election or give them a fair hearing in court.
After being nominated for president, Bobi Wine promised a “revolutionary election”, warning that if Museveni tried to cheat then he would be toppled like Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
Meanwhile, Museveni has repeatedly claimed that there are “terrorists” and “lawbreakers” within the opposition. In a statement released recently, the 76-year-old accused “foreign meddlers and sectarian parasites” of trying to mount an “insurrection”.
