President Museveni told Parliament yesterday that as surely as night follows day, the 2011 general elections will take place as scheduled, and asked Uganda's development partners to back off the country's poll preparations.

The President's comments were contained in his State of the Nation address to Parliament. "I have been hearing some individuals saying there will be no election in 2011," said Mr Museveni. "I would like to assure you as night follows day, there will be elections and nobody will disrupt these elections...nobody will intimidate us."

His comments were in direct response to a warning issued recently by Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye who said there was a possibility next year's crunch polls would not take place if President Museveni's administration declined to accept the idea of reconstituting the Electoral Commission.

A poll survey commissioned by Daily Monitor and the Deepening Democracy Programme revealed that 43 per cent of the population would have voted for Museveni had the polls been held last month while Dr Besigye followed with 35 per cent.

Mr Museveni hit back and threw his weight behind EC boss Badru Kiggundu. He told MPs that Eng. Kiggundu was a "consensus" candidate of both the government and opposition when appointed for his first term in 2002. "Initially the government had proposed another person; [Moses] Ssebunya our ambassador to Libya, but some of the people in the opposition opposed that name. That is how [Kiggundu's] name came up. It was a consensus name," said Mr Museveni. "Now somebody says we get rid of Kiggundu..."

Telling MPs that everything in his speech was "deliberate" and not "accidental" Mr Museveni reached out to the opposition and said any political disagreements with his government should be discussed in the Inter-party Forum and not with the donors.

In a message to the country's development partners, singling out the European Union and USA, Mr Museveni said: "We do not need help on elections. Elections are a simple exercise. Africa does not need lectures on what we fought for."

No donor lectures

He said donors would be more helpful if they "concentrate on energy, roads, and the railway...that is what I want to hear not lectures about what I am an expert in."

Offering an account of his administration's achievements over the last financial year, Mr Museveni said the Uganda economy had grown at a rate of 8.3 per cent, despite pessimism from critics, predicting a leap to 12 percent in the years ahead. He said the country's current Gross Domestic Product stands at Shs34.2 trillion --a statistic which he admitted makes him "quite happy" and "gratified".

Revenue collection has grown from Shs5 billion in 1986 to Shs5,000 billion this financial year, he said. MPs foot-stamped whenever the President made mention of an achievement, while a symbolic handshake with new Mukono North MP Betty Nambooze (DP) marked the end of his two hour speech delivery.

Discussing his administration's agenda for the next 12 months, Mr Museveni singled out electricity infrastructure development and roads construction as some of the priority areas for development. He listed more than a dozen roads for construction and upgrading this financial year, and said the government would extend the national electricity grid to several unreached areas.

Country relieved

The President reported that a special energy fund established under the Ministry of Energy, with current deposits standing at $350 million had relieved the country of over reliance on donors, telling MPs that once the country starts commercial production of oil, Uganda's budget dependence on foreign aid will fall further. "Uganda is now undelayable," said Mr Museveni, "Unstoppable."

The President also revealed that Uganda hopes to earn about $400 million (about Shs800 billion) from when Heritage Oil sells its interests to British exploration firm Tullow oil. "According to our laws, the Heritage-Tullow transaction is supposed to attract 30 per cent tax which means we'll get about $400 million," he said.

The President said the government had included funds to rehabilitate all referral hospitals in the country, in the 2010/2011 budget, which Finance Minister Syda Bumba will deliver to Parliament next week. He said plans are now underway to renovate Mulago Hospital as well as install special equipment to handle medical cases hitherto referred abroad, while the construction of two new general hospitals in Kampala, one at Naguru and another in Makindye division would decongest the national referral hospital.

The President warned head teachers against charging "fictitious" examination fees, as he announced that government would pay the exam fees for 500,000 Primary Leaving Examination pupils in 2010. He urged MPs to supervise the performance of the government's NAADS programme to stamp out corruption, but not before he suggested that Parliament empowers the military court martial to deal with the corrupt. "If you want to get rid of corruption, the court martial will solve it," he said, drawing loud disquiet. This is Museveni's last Nation address to the Eight Parliament.