Kampala - Nearly 90 per cent of Ugandans who cast their votes in a referendum rejected the re-introduction of multi-party politics, election officials said in a final news conference yesterday. With results from just seven of 16,500 polling stations still to come in, results showed support of 88 per cent for the "no-party" Movement set up by President Yoweri Museveni after he seized power in 1986.
Nine per cent of voters cast their ballots in favour of multiparty politics, while 3 per cent of ballots were spoiled. But with only 51.1 per cent of the electorate turning out to vote on Thursday, the poll appeared to give only half-hearted approval to Mr Museveni's formula.
Western donor nations, which contribute roughly half of Uganda's budget, have complained "the referendum campaign as a whole was not conducted on a level playing field" and was biased in favour of the Movement.