{"id":85,"date":"2016-02-19T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/02\/19\/uganda-country-goes-into-polls-vote\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T09:40:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:40:30","slug":"uganda-country-goes-into-polls-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/02\/19\/uganda-country-goes-into-polls-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"UGANDA: The Country goes into Polls; Vote Count has started"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nThe country went into polls on Thursday 18th
\nFebruary 2016 to elect the President, Parliament seats and local government
\nseats for the next five years.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAccording to some reports, the Electoral
\nCommission of Uganda (ECU) has started the counting of votes, an exercise expected
\nto last for about 48 hours. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSome media reported that balloting was delayed at
\nsome polling stations in the capital, Kampala, because election materials
\narrived late. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nEarlier on before the voting started there were
\nsome reports that the country\u2019s
\ncommunications regulator shut down some social media to stop further campaigning. <\/div>\n
\n  <\/b><\/div>\n
\nPresident Museveni, 71, is seeking another term in
\na race widely seen as the tightest in Ugandan’s history. The country went into
\npolls on Thursday 18th February to elect a president who will lead
\nthe country for the next five years.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nEight Presidential candidates are gunning for
\npresidency including one female. Incumbent Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, leader of
\nthe ruling party National Resistance Movement (NRM), is contesting his fifth
\nterm in office. There are no term limits on Presidential candidates in Uganda.
\nThe President\u2019s most prominent opposition is Kizza Besigye, a retired colonel, is
\nrunning for the fourth time on the ticket of the largest opposition party, the
\nForum for Democratic Change (FDC).<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nMuseveni is also facing his long-time advisor
\nAmama Mbabazi, a former Prime Minister and former NRM Secretary General between
\n2010 and 2014. Other contesters include Abed Bwanika (People\u2019s Development
\nParty), Benon Biraaro (Uganda Farmers Party), Venansius Baryamureeba, Joseph
\nMabirizi and Maureen Kyalya each running as an independent candidate.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nECU report stated that the number of registered
\nvoters for this general election is 15,294,070.  This is the 3rd multi-party
\nelection since the introduction of multi-party political system in the country in
\nthe year 2005. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nBefore the polling date, the country held its
\nSecond Televised Presidential Debate on Saturday February 13, 2016 at Serena
\nHotel in Kampala on which President Museveni also participated. The focus of
\nthe second debate was topics on foreign policy, economy and national security.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe first televised Presidential debate in the
\nUgandan history was held on Friday January 15, 2016 bringing on board all Presidential
\ncandidates except President Museveni. Topics such as Uganda\u2019s growing national
\ndebt, corruption, education and job creation were at the center of all
\ncandidates\u2019 manifestos. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nBy Jacinta W.
\nOdongo; Media Officer, Uganda Episcopal Conference<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The country went into polls on Thursday 18th February 2016 to elect the President, Parliament…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1477,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/1477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}