Just like America (Uganda election)

THE Supreme Court is presently hearing a petition by Col. Kizza Besigye seeking to nullify the recent presidential election won by President Museveni. The Besigye legal team has highlighted various perceived anomalies during the election. However it failed earlier this week to have the law amended so that the presidential election could be nullified even if these anomalies did not make a ‘substantial’ difference to the final result. This has reduced the chances of the Supreme Court ordering a re-run.

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It is now up to the Supreme Court to resolve whether the mutual criticism of rival candidates fell within the bounds of legitimate political campaigning, or whether it became so excessive as to invalidate the election.

Negative political advertising is increasingly common globally. Look at the nasty attacks on John Kerry and his record in Vietnam in the last American election. Many Americans were uncomfortable with that twisting of the truth – Bush dodged the draft and Kerry was a decorated war hero.

But this is the brutal nature of democratic politics in the media age. Uganda seems little different to the United States in this regard.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/489058