Tight race between President Museveni, Besigye in Ugandan polls

Provisional results on the Ugandan general election by midnight Ugandan time (2100 GMT) showed President Yoweri Museveni slightly ahead of his main challenger Colonel Kizza Besigye, at 50 percent and Besigye at 46 percent.

By about 10:25 p.m. Ugandan time President Museveni stood at 53 percent and Besigye was at 42 percent.

This trend shows that with the passing of time and with more results coming in, Musevenii's lead over Besigye drops slightly, making the race even more tight and unpredictable.

Reports also have come in of the extent of bribery undertaken by the NRM in western Uganda.

All the polling agents of FDC Treasurer Jack Sabiiti were arrested and spent the night before the election in jail. Sabiiti stood in Rukiga county in Kabale district.

In Ruhaama County where the First Lady Janet Museveni stood, ordinary people were beaten by the presidential guard brigade at the polling stations of Rugendo Kashingi and Kabuga.

FDC official Yona Kanyomozi reported the matter to the police.

The NRM realized that there was no chance of an easy rig in central, eastern, and northern Uganda, so the efforts of the state were concentrated on securing the vote in western Uganda.

According to reports received by Radio Katwe, state agents went to polling stations and handed out 10,000 shs. to voters to give their ballot to President Museveni and in Ruhaama, up to 30,000 shs. was given to voters to vote Mrs. Museveni and the President.

In Kibaale it was total chaos as the FDC reported 300 cases of intimidation, with the police and army openly harassing FDC agents. The mobile phones of the FDC agents were seized.

In Sembabule district, soldiers ran off with ballot boxes.

The NRM set up its tallying centre at the Kampala Sheraton and a source there said the ruling party was worried that the results were too close for comfort between Museveni and Besigye.

The NRM's big worry was the way Buganda would vote.

The biggest surprise was over how few spoilt or invalid votes were recorded, which showed that the Ugandan electorate was much more alert and knowledgeable than at any time in the last 26 years since the 1980 elections.

Radio Katwe would like to note that the margin for rigging was reduced when in January Radio Katwe reported to the world that the state planned to jam the three mobile phone networks, Celtel, MTN, and UTL on the afternoon of the election.

The idea was to cripple communication and enable rigging to take place. After Radio Katwe blew the whistle in advance, the state gave up the plan and that is how the radio stations in Uganda were able to get reports from the field by their correspondents.

More updates later in the day.