Ah… elections

Finally, after a prolonged political process, the national elections are finally upon us. I thought American politics were bad, then I came to Uganda. OK, American politics *are* bad, but man. The process is definitely not better here.

The presidential election will be held 18 Feb, and the local elections will be held in the two to three weeks after (no, I don’t know why). People must travel to their homes in order to vote, so most of the country will be on the road next week, coming or going.

Since many secondary school students are eligible to vote, the “long holiday” for the students has been protracted, and all students will be returning to school next weekend too, since there won’t be enough of a traffic jam already. I heard that UCU had to receive special permission to open our semester on time! We will be closing for a half day the day before the election, then will reopen on 20 Feb.

Please pray for safety for all who are traveling, and for fair and free elections. Electoral malfeasance is pretty much expected here; in the last election, one district returned more ballots than there were people in the district. While Ugandans are not confrontational by nature, the political rhetoric seems to have been stepped up this year, and if things go as expected, I think things could become interesting quickly.

While I am not heinously worried about security, that is easy for me to say since I’m about 45 minutes from Kampala. I intend to stock up on groceries this weekend to ensure that I don’t need to go anywhere near Kampala for a while. Please pray for peace after the elections too. Burundi is in turmoil, Rwanda is having its own presidential issues, and Tanzania has some excitement too. The region does not need more instability.

Quite honestly, I’m looking forward to the break. Tuesday is Janani Luwuum day, commemorating the Archbishop who was martyred by Idi Amin. The election is two days later, which makes me wonder if someone forgot that the president [finally] made 16 Feb a public holiday last year. Regardless, I’m seeing it as a kind of spring break, and I’m looking forward to getting caught up on work.