Ugandan election officials say they expect peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections, saying the commission is ready to hold the poll set for tomorrow.
Seven candidates will go up against long-serving leader Yoweri Museveni, including his former personal doctor now turned critic Kizza Besigye and his former advisor Amama Mbabazi.
“The stage is set. We have dispatched electoral materials to all polling stations throughout the country and are ready to kick off the exercise,” national electoral commission spokesperson Jotham Taremwa told AFP.
“We expect a peaceful exercise. Security is on the ground and we have put out messages calling on voters to come in big numbers on Thursday and cast their votes.”
Analysts widely expect Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) to win the election, with the 71-year old entering his fourth decade in power.
“Whoever will try to bring violence, you will see what we shall do to him. Those who want violence should play somewhere else not Uganda,” Museveni told thousands of supporters in his final rally on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper.
“There are people spreading fear, but let them know that nobody should intimidate Ugandans, and nobody is going to disrupt the peace in Uganda.”
Over 15 million Ugandans are registered to participate in the vote, with the polling posts spread across 28,000 stations around the country.
African Union Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Wednesday called for “peace and calm before, during and after” the polls.
