Africa Media Watch

Media Watch this week concentrates on Uganda's presidential elections - recently delayed for five days because of voting registration difficulties

Complaints

The nominally pro-government daily The New Vision said all the candidates had complained to the Electoral Commission about irregularities, including the multiple registration of some individuals, the deletion from voting lists of others and the registration of minors.

An official in President Yoweri Museveni's campaign team was quoted as saying: "The registration of children and double registration were done deliberately by agents sympathetic to Kizza Besigye," the main opposition candidate.

Awori cited incidences where Museveni is using senior members of the army and gun-wielding goons in his campaigns

The New Vision

Dr Besigye's team in turn complained that voters had been denied access to the voting registers.

Violence and intimidation

Apart from irregularities, the Uganda media has also been full of claim and counter claim about electoral violence and intimidation.

Opposition candidates have accused Mr Museveni's team of pursuing a campaign of intimidation, using the police and armed forces, while it has hit back with its own accusations of abuse.

The latter part of the election campaign also coincided with start of the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo, prompting army commander Maj-Gen Jeje Odongo to "deny rumours that the troops are being withdrawn to impress the electorate in the looming polls", The Monitor reported.

The independent daily also said the US ambassador to Uganda, Martin Brennan, "has decried the high level of campaign violence in the run-up to the elections".

The Besigye camps are harbouring intentions of importing machetes which they are to use to behead people after inciting violence through ethnic hatred

Museveni press release on Ugandan radio

"Brennan said he had received complaints from various presidential candidates' camps."

Ugandan radio quoted a report by the independent, Kampala-based Foundation for Human Rights Initiative as saying the campaign was "characterised by abusive language, intimidation and harassment", including "physical and psychological abuse and death threats".

Although the state-controlled radio did not mention which sides were responsible, it did say the report "expresses concern the presidential elections act does not provide a level playing field".

The New Vision carried reports of various opposition claims of violence and intimidation, and also said it was the victim of opposition violence itself.

It is an election, not a war

The Monitor

It quoted presidential candidate Aggrey Awori - running third in opinion polls - as saying soldiers were carrying out a "reign of terror" in some areas, and warning "mayhem will soon break out" unless Mr Museveni restrained them.

Mr Awori said that in one instance, his supporters had "received blows, insults and some were forced into one of President Museveni's buses for torture".

The New Vision said Mr Awori had accused President Museveni of planning to declare a state of emergency. "Awori cited incidences where Museveni is using senior members of the army and gun-wielding goons in his campaigns".

Lending credence to allegations of army interference, it said the Electoral Commission had asked the president "to stop the military interfering in the electoral process".

Ahead in the polls: President Museveni

The daily also said it had been besieged by supporters of Dr Besigye complaining that The New Vision had been publishing "defamatory and inflammatory" materials.

"We hope they will not soon be attempting to block publication of The New Vision altogether," editor-in-chief William Pike said.

In Rukungiri district, pro-Museveni forces said Dr Besigye's team was involved in "inhuman and barbaric actions", Ugandan radio reported.

The worse mistake any Ugandan can make is to resort to violence to address any issue in this election

The New Vision

"The Besigye camps are harbouring intentions of importing machetes which they are to use to behead people after inciting violence through ethnic hatred," the president's team alleged.

Warnings

Most opinion polls put Mr Museveni in the lead, followed by Dr Besigye. The Monitor went one better, with its main poll following the dominant trend, while an online poll it ran put Dr Besigye ahead with 45%, to the incumbent's 37%.

Both The Monitor and The New Vision warned of the danger of widespread violence, in editorials.

In a piece headlined "It is an election, not a war", The Monitor accused the security forces and state institutions of backing Mr Museveni. "The country is left without a neutral authority to protect people who don't support the incumbent."

A New Vision columnist feared that "violence is likely to occur if no steps are taken to avert it".

"The worst mistake any Ugandan can make is to resort to violence to address any issue in this election."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.