Kampala — THE DEMOCRACY Monitoring Group has said the February 23 elections fell below the expected standards of free and fair elections.

"DEMgroup is of the view that the election of 23 February 2006, though important in the evolution of the democratic process in Uganda, had several shortcomings which rendered the exercise short of our expectation of a free and fair contest," the local group said in its preliminary report.

DEMGroup is a consortium of three Ugandan civil society Organisations: Uganda Joint Christian Council, Action for Development and Uganda Journalists Safety Committee. It deployed poll watchers at all the 19,786 polling stations in the country.

The group cited some cases of rigging in different parts of the country.

"We note that there were cases of massive vote rigging in some polling stations and most incidents occurred in the western and eastern districts," the DEMGroup National Coordinator, Rev. Grace Kaiso told journalists at a press conference at Fairway Hotel over the weekend.

DEMGroup faulted the EC for not paying sufficient attention to "certain matters that had adverse impact on the electoral process". These include the use of hundreds of underage voters, illegal use of government resources like the media and vehicles for campaigning and placing candidate Kizza Besigye at a great disadvantage by bogging him down with court cases.

The group also expresses alarm at the large number of voters who were turned away because their names were missing from the register. On average, DEMgroup said a minimum of five voters were turned away from every polling station and in the displaced people's camps in the north, as many as 300 people could be turned away from a polling station.

The report said that "hundreds of secondary children" in Bulo polling station in Bulo sub-county, Mpigi district who were suspected by some voters to be under-age voted were turned away.

"Likewise, at Airfield polling station in Lwampanga sub-county in Nakasongola about 50 school children who appeared under-age but whose names were on the register voted," the group said.

The report also noted that the pre-election atmosphere was "not entirely conducive to a free and fair electoral process".

"The political parties namely DP, FDC and UPC had very little time to organize themselves for campaigning," the group said. "This was mainly because of the late enactment of the enabling laws by Parliament."

But the victorious National Resistance Movement has dismissed the Demgroup's report. The NRM deputy spokesperson, Mr Ofwono Opondo, said the group's claims were "simply baseless rumours" made to please their financiers.

"Those reports are not true," Opondo charged. "These people have nothing to prove their allegations.

They just want to make accountability for donor funds by publicising false rumours".

DEMGroups' Kaiso cites a report that in Tirinyi polling station in Kibuku County, Pallisa district results of the polling station in question were cancelled as a result of suspected massive rigging.

"In Makanga polling station, Kabale Municipality, 10 excess votes were found in the ballot box at the time of tallying," he said, adding that at Ndorwa polling station in the same municipality, the presiding officer was arrested for issuing two ballot papers to a voter," he said. The exercise was cancelled and had to be repeated on February 24.

He also cited intimidation and violence in certain parts of the country including Pallisa and Tororo districts.

But EC spokesman Peter Okello Jabweli said the DEMGroup's statement contains allegations they need to prove.

"We have not yet received that report but all the contents of that report are just claims. We need to institute investigations to verify those reports before we can give our position on the matters raised," Jabweli said yesterday.

However, the DEMGroup commended the EC for availing copies of the voters' register and the number of registered voters per polling station to all political parties/candidates and other stakeholders including observers as well as well as publicising the list of polling stations in the entire country in the print media.

It also commende the way the commission adhered to the law specifically by allowing candidate Kizza Besigye to be nominated in absentia despite the advice of the Attorney General to the contrary.

DEMGroup also expressed concern that "there was anecdotal evidence that the ballot box seals were not used, or they were not used properly".

The report said, "It is our opinion that this was a serious issue because it creates, at the very least, a perception that the ballots could be manipulated."

The group also found it unfair that a big number of voters were stopped from voting because of time yet most of the polling stations opened late. " 23.4 percent of the polling stations opened between 8:00am and 10:00am, and some of the vital election materials like ink pads, seals and ink markers were missing at most of the stations," Kaiso said.

Another local civic body, the Foundation for African Development noted the violent incidents involving armed people in the run-up to the elections.

FAD also noted that the process was characterised by late enactment of laws, arrest of one of the position candidates and the deployment of the military in public.

But while the Ugandan observers have raised serious reservations, the foreigners who came in just before the elections have declared the polls free and fair.

Reports by the European Union, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Egyptian delegation, the Nigerian Electoral Commission, the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments and the East African Community among others described the polls as "very clear, free, fair, well organised, the best the country has witnessed..."

But even the supportive reports have attracted a rebuke from the NRM. Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, who is minister of internal affairs, has written to Mr Max van den Berg, Chief EU Election Observation Mission, saying the government is concerned by the EU's conclusion that there was no level-playing field on grounds that President Museveni and his party utilised State resources in the campaign. Rugunda cited the law which allows the President to use the resources usually attached to him during campaigns.

He also said it was premature for the EU team to make its conclusion before the parties had filed their accountability to show where their funding came from.

Rugunda also objected to the EU's raising the arraignment of Besigye, saying their statement seems to imply that the charges were not genuine and were politically motivated.