‘I don’t need lectures,’ Museveni tells EU and US after Uganda poll criticism

President Yoweri Museveni has dismissed European Union and U.S. criticism of Uganda’s presidential election, telling foreign observers not to lecture him. Museveni, in power since 1986, was declared the winner on Saturday but Kizza Besigye, his main challenger, who was under house arrest on Sunday, called the election a sham. Another candidate, Amama Mbabazi, said it was “fundamentally flawed”. But Museveni, 71, dismissed the idea that the commission had favoured him and his National Resistance Movement (NRM).

They are wrong, they are not serious. I told those Europeans … I don’t need lectures from anybody.

President Yoweri Museveni

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who led a group of Commonwealth observers, said the poll “fell short of meeting some key democratic benchmarks”. The United States also criticised the handling of the vote and raised concerns about the house arrest of Besigye, who was in detention for the fourth time in a week and alleged that his electronic communication had been blocked. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Museveni on Friday to voice concern over the harassment of opposition figures and the shutdown of social media in Uganda, where Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have faced outages since election day.

Mr John Kerry rang me and I told him: 'Don’t worry, we’re experts in managing all those things (elections)’.

President Museveni

Museveni