General Saleh tries to get population data ahead of rigging

General Salim Saleh, the stepbrother of President Yoweri Museveni has been trying to get data on the number of Ugandans in every county, as part of his assignment to rig the February 23 election.

Although the Museveni campaign task force is nominally led by NRM Vice Chairman Moses Kigongo, it is well known in Kampala that General Saleh is the real head of the task force and his deputy is Brigadier Noble Mayombo.

On Friday February 10, Saleh went to Entebbe to the offices of the government statistics department to get the information but Radio Katwe has learned that he was either denied it or failed to get it one way or another.

It is not known if he continued trying to get the data on Monday February 13.

In the 2001 election, the NRM rigged so massively that President Museveni ended up getting more votes than were there on the register.

State House had to close off the Electoral Commission offices for a day and they brought in two trusted computer specialists, one called Basil Tyaba and the other one Lenina Mbaba, the daughter of Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi to get the number of votes down to fit the registered number of voters.

The stakes in this election are so high for Uganda and the international community that the Commonwealth Observer Group has sent 600 observers and the European Union is sending 200.

The fact that General Saleh has decided to go for the national population register says one thing, that the NRM has realized that whatever it does between now and February 23, it has already lost the race for the presidency and is now moving to the second option of rigging.

Using their advanced and secret communications systems located at their embassies plus Ugandan informers and spies of goodwill, the Europeans and Americans should keep track of Saleh's every move because he is up to no good.