Uganda's President Museveni Takes Early Lead In Vote - Commission
First Published Saturday, 19 February 2011 08:24 am - © 2011 Dow Jones
KAMPALA Uganda -(Dow Jones)- The Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has taken an early lead in the voting in Friday's election, the electoral commission chairman announced Saturday.
Preliminary results indicate president Museveni had garnered around 1.6 million of the votes counted so far compared with around 520,000 of his closest challenger, Kizza Besigye, said commission chairman Badru Kiggundu on Saturday. About 28% of the ballots have been counted so far, he added.
It is estimated that around 80% of the 14 million registered voters participated in the country's election, which pitted president Museveni against seven opponents.
The opposition Interparty Coalition, which backed Besigye, described Friday's vote as "flawed and violent," citing interference from the military, a charge denied by authorities.
Victory for Museveni should be a relief for oil companies like U.K.-based Tullow Oil PLC (TUWOY, TLW.LN) and its proposed consortium partners, France's oil major, Total SA (TOT, FP.FR) and China's CNOOC Ltd. (CEO, 0883.HK) which are eyeing the development of the country's estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil in the Lake Albertine rift basin, according to analysts.
Uganda, Africa's largest robusts coffee grower is slated to join the league of African oil producers next year and a win for Museveni would see him steer the country to become an oil producer.
A tax dispute involving the sale of Heritage Oil PLC (HOIL.LN) assets in the country to Tullow has delayed Tullow's planned farm out to CNOOC and Total and the development of the oil assets.
According to Philippe de Pontet, an analyst with Eurasia Group, no material political obstacles are expected to derail the proposed oil projects in Uganda upon the election of Museveni.
Uganda's oil production is expected to peak at around 350,000 barrels a day by 2018, according to Tullow.
Museveni has been in power since 1986. Presidential term limits in Uganda were scrapped in 2005 by the ruling party-dominated legislature.
-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires
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