The Poles are Closed

Sorry for the delay... We've been banished from Kampala for the past week+ because of the elections in Uganda. Normally, elections are a peaceful and sometimes even exciting time, but in Africa, they are usually cause for fear and caution.

The elections went off without a hitch, thankfully, and there has been no major violence in Kampala so far. The problem with elections here, is that opposing sides are pinned so fiercely against one another. The National Resistance Movement (NRM) has been the ruling party in Uganda for 25 years now, ever since the overthrow of vicious dictator, Idi Amin. Oh, and did I mention that Yoweri Museveni has been the President of Uganda for that entire time? Originally, he was limited to two 5-year terms, but he was able to extend the number of terms indefinitely by changing the constitution. Obviously, this isn't the most democratic practice, but the common folk of Uganda see it as a good thing, because he has "brought peace and prosperity for the people" and "he is the only one who knows how to do the job in Uganda" (Quotes coming directly from my imagination as a summary of what villagers have been telling me).

The opposition party doesn't exactly have it's act together either. The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) is the strongest opposition, but is no where near as powerful as the NRM. Part of the problem is that it is a coalition party, meaning that it is made up of a union of smaller parties. Unfortunately, one of the fears or the people is that if the FDC were to get into power, the party members wouldn't share the same ideologies and doctrines, and the government would split, running in different directions towards different issues.

What it ultimately comes down to is money. The NRM controls the government and the national purse. Actually, the NRM spent 85% of this years national budget on political campaigns, and it shows. You can't walk anywhere in Kampala without seeing a yellow NRM sign or Museveni's face with his trademark farmers hat, since he's "One of the common folk". And surprisingly (kind of), the cities are actually the FDC's strongest voter bases. The rural areas just tend to support Museveni (M7 to his friends) because they are uninformed voters and fear that the country will fall back into war and obscurity if someone else is left at the helm.

So elections are always a toss up... Kind of. The NRM won handily, with 68% of the votes, thus starting M7's sixth (and final?) term. Some think that Museveni will try to become the first president of the East African Community in 2017, if the position is established that is, giving himself a nice little retirement package. Who knows if this election is over yet though. Rumor has it that the opposition is still trying to stage a demonstration in the upcoming weeks. But don't worry. We've already hatched an escape plan including a military transport and a place to stay near to the US Embassy.