The President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has criticised the opposition and the donor community over the suggested electoral reforms and the threats from some sections of the opposition to boycott the next Uganda general elections in 2011.

President Yoweri Museveni

Museveni has assured Parliament in his State of the Nation Address that no body will disrupt the 2011 elections and that they will be carried out no matter what the opposition and the donors try to do to stop the elections.

This comes after a period of heated debate in the country between the opposition and the ruling government as to whether the current Electoral Commission headed by Dr. Badru Kiggundu is still credible enough to organise free and fair elections thus prompting a demand from the opposition that that commission should be disbanded and replaced with a new one which demand the government has declined to heed to.

The President says that rather than the opposition running to donors to accuse him of his refusal to heed the demand of the change of the electoral commission they, it is better that they should engage him in through the Interparty Forum for more meaningful discussions about elections.

Museveni says he cannot be intimidated by what the donors say about the election reforms because the donors have no power over the country.

Meanwhile the president has emphasised the energy, infrastructure, health and education sectors as priority sectors on which the government will focus in the next financial year. He advised donors to focus on supporting Uganda in energy and infrastructure, and ‘to a little extent on education and health” instead of “advising Uganda on how to hold elections and govern the country”.

On the other hand the President of the Conservative Party Ken Lukyamuzi says the aim of the opposition in demanding for the electoral reforms is not to disrupt the 2011 elections but to ensure that those elections are free and fair.

By Zacharia Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media