TODAY IN HISTORY: Obote sworn in as President for second time December 15, 1980

 

Obote being sworn in by the Chief Registrar of the
High Court of Uganda A.M.C Ochwo on
 December 15, 1980

📌 MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1980

✳️ Obote sworn in aged 55, 

✳️ UPC won 69 seats in the 126-seat Parliament

✳️ Ssemogerere's DP won 55 seats, stayed away from the inauguration

EXACTLY 40 years ago today, Apollo Milton Obote was sworn in for a second time as President of Uganda, becoming the first leader of an African nation to be overthrown in a coup and then win re-election.

"In my life I have faced challenges and intimidating tasks," said Obote, who led Uganda from independence until he was overthrown by his army commander Idi Amin in 1971. "But never have I been faced with formidable challenges such as we now face."

He then prepared to take on the challenge of rebuilding a shattered economy. "We have problems, we have friends, we have the ability to do a number of things, we have natural resources," said Obote, who has promised to abandon past socialist views to rescue the country's economy from the chaos of the Amin years.

The elections held December 10 and 11 1980, were controversial in many ways, but the  Commonwealth Observer Group’s final report stated that  “The people of Uganda, like some great tidal wave, carried the electoral process to a worthy and valid conclusion.”

They were impressed by the voters’ enthusiasm and patience, and their initial judgment (expressed before results were announced) was that the elections “should broadly reflect the freely expressed choice of the people of Uganda.”

It was the belief that the 1980 elections were rigged that led Yoweri Museveni to begin a long — and ultimately successful — guerrilla war against the UNLA supported governments of Dr Milton Obote, who was then overthrown again by his army Commander, this time Tito Okello Lutwa in 1985, before the NRA won the war a year later.

ELECTION RESULTS

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Democratic Party	1,966,244	47.1	50	+26
Uganda People's Congress	1,963,679	47.1	75	+38
Uganda Patriotic Movement	171,785	4.1	1	New
Conservative Party	70,181	1.6	0	New
Invalid/blank votes	2,419	–	–	–
Total	4,174,328	100	126	+44
Registered voters/turnout	4,898,117	85.2	–	–
Source: Wikipedia (Not official tally of results)

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HOW THE FOREIGN PRESS REPORTED THE INAUGURATION

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THE WASHINGTON POST

Ugandan President: Controversial Figure With a Unique Past

By Jay Ross

December 15, 1980

Apollo Milton Obote, the once and new president of Uganda, has won a unique place in African politics. He is the first leader of an African nation to be overthrown in a coup and then win reelection.

Since Idi Amin, who had toppled Obote, was ousted last year, Obote has been the key topic of conversation in the country. Monday, almost a decade after his overthrow, Obote will be inaugurated again as president after an election marred by irregularities.

"Obote was the main issue in the election," said a longtime observer of the 55-year-old grandson of a tribal chief from the northern Lango region. "He's too controversial a figure to lead the government -- he's not the man to pull the country together."

The elections seemed to show that Ugandans either love Obote or hate him; his followers are located largely in the north and his opponents in the southern Buganda region.

Even though he lived in Tanzania in political exile for nine years as the guest of his friend, President Julius Nyerere, Ugandan memories about Obote seem to be long, mainly because he tried to destroy the power of the country's feudal kings in Buganda.

Even many of his opponents agree, however, that he has leadership ability and that his party is the best organized in the country, giving some hope that Obote can begin to pull Uganda out of its decade of chaos if he can overcome the nation's divisions.

Obote became the first prime minister of Uganda after independence from Britain in 1962.He canceled the scheduled 1967 election, rewrote the constitution and became executive president of a one-party, socialist-oriented state.

He was wounded in an assassination attempt in 1969.

A measure of his unpopularity was the celebration that occurred in much of the nation when he was overthrown by Amin, his Army chief. But later Amin presided over the killing of an estimated 500,000 people and the destruction of the economy.

Even after Amin was overthrown last year, Obote remained in the Tanzanian capital and was able to return to Uganda only after military leaders favorable toward him seized power in May.

Now, having won a second chance at the leaderdship, "he is a driven man, determined to redeem himself," a diplomat said.

Born in 1925, Obote spent his youth as a goatherd while going to local schools. He went to teacher training college in Kampala but never entered the teaching profession. He has an honorary doctorate from Long Island University in New York.

Instead, he moved to neighboring Kenya in the 1950s where he worked in a sugar factory and later in a construction firm while he trained in politics under Tom Mboya, a leading Kenyan politician assassinated in the 1960s.

He returned to Uganda and formed the Uganda People's Congress in 1959 and was elected as the first leader of independent Uganda under the party's auspices.

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UPI United Press International 

Obote sworn in as Uganda's president

By TOM LANSNER

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Milton Obote took the oath of office Monday as president of Uganda nine years after he was ousted by Idi Amin and called on his countrymen to unite in building 'a new future' for the African nation.

Obote, 55, whose election was disputed by the opposition party, drove in his white Mercedes Benz to the steps of Parliament where the country's new chief justice, George Masika -- attired in red robes and a white wig -- administered the oath.

'In my life I have faced challenges and intimidating tasks,' said Obote, who led Uganda from independence until overthrown by Amin in 1971. 'But never have I been faced with formidable challenges such as we now face.'

Hundreds of cheering Ugandans waved posters of Obote and sang and danced as the government and military bands played the national anthem and the theme of the Uganda People's Congress, Obote's party.

'We have problems, we have friends, we have the ability to do a number of things, we have natural resources,' said Obote, who has promised to abandon past socialist views to rescue the country's economy from the chaos of the Amin years.

'It may be difficult but together it should be possible for all of us to rebuild Uganda.'

In Washington, the State Department declined comment on Obote's election, saying it would rather await a report by a British Commonwealth observer team on alleged irregularities in the election.

Obote called upon the Democratic Party to accept last week's national elections. But party leader Paul 

Ssemogerere stayed away from the inauguration and called a strategy meeting of the party's national leadership.

The Democratic Party has charged that widespread intimidation and tampering with election returns helped Obote's party win 69 seats in the 126-seat Parliament. The Democratic Party won 55 seats and two seats went to a smaller party.

Obote told the Democratic Party its 'role as the opposition party is as challenging as the role of the UPC and the government. Our destiny is the same. We either rise or sink together.'

The new president, who spent nine years exiled in Tanzania during the Amin regime, said 'We shall work for reconciliation, we shall insist on no revenge. The past is gone, we start a new future.'

Obote's party won 17 seats -- more than the margin of victory -- after Democratic Party candidates were disqualified. While the disqualifications were based on flimsy legal grounds, the opposition party is expected to have little success in changing the results in court.

As the majority party in Parliament, Obote's party is expected to quickly increase its majority by naming nominated members. In all, 30 members are expected to be added, all loyal to the new president's party.