East African Community (EAC) has said in its final verdict that the January 14 Ugandan general election was free and fair.

The head of the EAC observers Domitien Ndayizeye, who is the former president of Burundi, said the election was credible but was only marred by inconvenience in some areas where polling stations were opened late.

“What we are saying is what we have seen… in general, the elections were free and fair. But this does not mean that there has not been a problem here and there. In elections you never perform 100 per cent, such as switching off internet was not good for everybody,” he said, as was quoted by the Daily Monitor.

He said the electoral process was seamless courtesy of the biometric voter identification and this is a depiction that the country had properly prepared for the exercise.

However, the EAC observers faulted the Ugandan government for switching off the internet and keeping citizens in darkness.

 “Owing to the limitation in technology capacity as a result of the restricted internet access, the mission was not able to observe transmission of results from the polling stations to the district and national tally centres. We were also not able to transmit our field information in real time,” he said.

The Kampala administration had attributed the decision to insecurity, but failed to issue expansive statement on how access to internet could cause a breach.

On Saturday, the Uganda Electoral Commission declared President Yoweri Museveni the winner of the presidential race with 5,851,037 votes (58.64 per cent).

Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) of the NUP Party came second with 3,475,298 votes (34.83 per cent).

The election was marred with claims of rigging as opposition leaders protested intimidation by the security officers which they said gave an edge to the incumbent. In specific, Bobi Win has disowned the results and called on Ugandans not to recognise Museveni’s win.