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Uganda Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Uganda
Official Name: Republic of Uganda
Capital: Kampala
Area: 235,880 square kilometres (91,074 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
Kampala 773,463 (1991 estimate)
Jinja 60,979 (1991 estimate)
Mbale 53,634 (1991 estimate)
Entebbe 41,638 (1991 estimate)
Population: 21,297,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 3.4 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 9 October 1962 (from the United Kingdom)
Constitution: Approved on 8 October 1995
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
The unicameral National Assembly of 126 popularly elected members was dissolved after the 1985 coup. The National Resistance Council was established in 1986; following elections in 1989, the council consisted of 210 elected and 68 appointed members. A new constitution provides for a popularly elected president and legislature, although opposition parties are still not recognized.
The highest tribunals of Uganda are the court of appeal and the high court. The country also has magistrates’ courts. Uganda is divided into 39 districts. The districts are grouped into four geographical regions: Eastern, Western, Central, and Northern.
Recent History
The United Kingdom ruled Uganda for almost 70 years with a centralized European bureaucracy over a federation of kingdoms and tribes. This worked well until the independence movements of the 1950s, when the Kingdom of Buganda demanded separation from Uganda. Only after the kabaka, or king, of the Kingdom of Buganda, Mutesa II, was exiled for two years in 1953 was it possible to proceed with developing a united government.
After much experimenting, a federal constitution was written in April 1962, and Milton Obote became prime minister. Dissension continued, however, and in May 1966 Obote sent the army into the Kingdom of Buganda and drove the kabaka into exile. He then proclaimed a new republican constitution, which formally abolished the kingships, and became Uganda’s first president of a united government.
The British had favoured the business community—largely Hindus of Asian origin—and the Buganda, placing much wealth in their hands. These groups were not happy with the harsh measures taken to restructure the economy, especially the process of decolonization. This led to a general dissatisfaction, and while Obote was on a state visit, a military coup took place on 25 January 1971. Idi Amin, the army commander, overthrew the regime and replaced it with a military dictatorship that lasted for eight years. He increased the size of the army, ruthlessly eliminated his political opponents, and began a reign of terror directed at the people of the Kingdom of Buganda, Obote’s Lango people, and their neighbours, the Acholi. He also expelled 60,000 Asians from the country. By 1978 Uganda was bankrupt, and the government was dependent on massive loans from Arab states friendly to Amin. Uganda went to war with neighbouring Tanzania in late 1978, and Tanzanian forces allied with Ugandan rebels drove Amin from the country early the following year.
In elections held in December 1980, under a new constitution, Obote’s party was successful, and he became president again. However, the economic situation was severe with an inflation rate of more than 200 per cent, no consumer goods, few jobs, rampant theft, famine in the north, and no effective government in the countryside. In 1982, after Tanzanian troops had been withdrawn, anti-government guerrillas became active, and thousands of young men were arrested, suspected of being guerrillas. Thereafter, more than 100,000 Ugandans were either killed or starved to death.
A coup in July 1985 overthrew the constitutional government, and Obote fled the country and settled in Zambia. The military chief, Bazilo Olara Okello, who led the coup, installed Tito Okello as president. The National Resistance Army led by Yoweri Museveni, which had been trying to overthrow Obote since 1981, intensified its rebellion. In a bloody fight, Okello’s short regime was ousted, and on 30 January 1986 Museveni formed a government under the broad-based National Resistance Movement, with the National Resistance Council as its supreme body. In 1994 the Constituent Assembly was elected to discuss the constitutional amendments proposed by the Odoki Constitutional Commission and reach a consensus, and it completed its task in October 1995. Among its many provisions, the new constitution extends the current ban on activities by opposition political parties for five more years; President Museveni has long maintained that partisan politics threaten to divide Uganda along tribal and racial lines. However, the president and legislature are now elected by popular vote.
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