Automated phone calls and rap music, president Museveni of Uganda has tried everything to convince voters to give him another term as president of the central African nation. But despite his popularity - recent polls predict a 65% victory – the Ugandan president is not ready to give the Ugandan diaspora a vote in the elections.

“Most of the Ugandans in the diaspora are not very pro-government, that’s why we think that the government does not allow voting abroad.”

So says Ali Balunywa, a Ugandan media consultant who lives in the Netherlands. “The Ugandan diaspora is enlightened; we know what’s going on. If the government would put a structure in place in order to let us vote from abroad, the government would lose.” Balunywa also can’t vote, not only because expatriates aren’t allowed to cast a ballot, but because he lost his Ugandan citizienship. When he obtained Dutch nationality, he was forced to give up his Ugandan passport as, at the time, dual citizenship was not allowed by Uganda.

Practical problems
According to Mirjam Blaak, Deputy Head of Mission at the Ugandan embassy in Brussels, the government is not afraid of the diaspora vote. “We haven’t managed to set up a system yet that would allow us to vote outside the country boundaries, it’s a practical problem,” she explains. “The constitution was just amended to allow dual citizienship again, we haven’t got to voting abroad yet.”

But Balunywa does not agree. “If Rwanda and even southern Sudan manage to organize elections or referenda abroad, why can’t Uganda organize this!? The government had enough time to get it done!”

A player to consider
About 1500 Ugandans live in the Netherlands, a small number compared to the fifty thousand in the United States and over a hundred thousand Ugandan expatriates in the United Kingdom. “Things have to change, because the Ugandan diaspora sends home more than 1 billon dollar a year and that is almost as much as the total worth of the Ugandan national export,” says Balunywa. “We are a player to consider.”

Mirjam Blaak thinks that Museveni’s National Resistance Party, of which she is a long time member, will win again. But the victory will likely be disputed by one of the seven other contestants. On Thursday, only hours before the polls opened, presidential candidate Kizza Besigye said that he will only concede to president Museveni if he is confident that the outcome has not been rigged. If his observers see any irregularities, Besigye has threatened to mobilize his supporters on to the streets instead of disputing the situation in court.

The world needs Uganda
Despite allegations of rigging and wide spread corruption, president Museveni has strong support amongst a large part of the population. And that’s why Balunywa also thinks that Museveni will win another term. But Balunywa is disappointed by the lack of criticism from developed countries: “Why doesn’t the European Union insist on having the same values in Uganda as they apply to themselves?” Balunywa says he knows the answer: because Uganda is the main supplier of security forces in East Africa. “Ugandans are fighting in Somalia, instead of the UN. It’s Ugandans who are dying. But if there would be a change in government, Uganda might pull its troops out of these areas, and that what the world is afraid of.”

Ambassador Blaak says that organizing a system to let the diaspora vote abroad will be a priority for the next Museveni-government. “The government has discussed this on the cabinet level, and promises were made at a special gathering in the US. Maybe it will be available for the next elections, five years from now.”