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By Raymond Thibodeaux
Kampala
21 February 2006

When Ugandans go to the polls Thursday they will be voting in the country's first multi-party presidential election in 25 years and the country's current president, who has been in power for 20 years, appears likely to win another five-year term.

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Supporters of Ugandan president at election rally
  

By noon, the parade grounds in Kampala, Uganda's capital, are already a swirl¹ of thousands of yellow-shirted revelers, blowing whistles, singing praise songs and holding aloft placards and effigies² of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Mashakalugo Abubakharcan, who is 29 years old, is an unemployed³ truck driver who hopes to get a glimpse of Mr. Museveni at this rally.

Like most Ugandans, he credits the president with bringing stability and a modicum⁴ of prosperity to a country recovering from decades of civil war and brutal⁵ repression⁶ at the hands of former dictators Milton Obote and Idi Amin. "At the time when it was Obote, we saw our parents were caned⁷. Others were killed. So we did not to come again into that period. That is why we support Museveni," he said.

Independent opinion polls show Mr. Museveni with a clear lead: 47 percent of those surveyed said they would vote for Mr. Museveni compared to 36 percent for his chief rival, Kizza Besigye. Some analysts⁸ are touting⁹ Uganda's election as a test of democracy in a region of Africa where democratic institutions, traditionally weak, appear to be getting weaker.

But some observers are saying that the battle for Uganda's highest office has not been a fair fight. Mr. Museveni took power in a military coup¹⁰ 20 years ago and has remained the country's leader.

Some Western governments that once hailed Mr. Museveni as a model of African leadership are now criticizing him for embarking¹¹ on a path eerily¹² similar to the autocrats¹³ he overthrew¹⁴.
 

Ugandan President Museveni at campaign rally   
  
In a fiery¹⁵ speech to about 20,000 cheering supporters at the campaign rally, Museveni chided Western governments and foreign donors¹⁶ for meddling¹⁷ into Uganda's domestic affairs.

The Museveni government lifted a ban on opposition¹⁸ parties last year, a move made under pressure from foreign donors, who provide nearly half the country's operating budget. But the president also shocked those same donors when he forced through a change in the constitution to scrap¹⁹ term limits, paving the way for him to run for a third five-year term.

When Besigye returned from exile in South Africa, where he had fled after a failed presidential bid in the 2001 election, Mr. Museveni had him thrown in jail on charges of treason and rape²⁰. Ugandan courts ruled last month that Besigye should be released on bail²¹, but he has been in and out of court hearings ever since, hobbling his presidential bid. He is is due back in court two weeks after the election.

Many Ugandans fear change because, since independence from Britain in 1961, Uganda has never had a peaceful transition of power.

Theodora Kaweesi, 36, a painter who lives in Kampala says she will vote for Mr. Museveni one last time. "I like him and I'm giving him my vote with love. And I am saying it is the last time because everything has a beginning and an end. I feel it will be fine for him to relax and we will see him as a good president like another president - for example, Mandela," she said.

With a Museveni win widely expected, some Ugandans are shifting their focus toward what might happen after the votes are counted. Images of Ethiopia's post-election violence are still vivid in the minds of many Ugandans.