MIRINDIMO

ENTEBBE, Uganda (AFP) – Veteran President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday predicted a landslide victory in polls this week, dismissing his main challenger's assertion that Uganda was ripe for an Egypt-style uprising."It will be a big win," Museveni, who has been in power for 25 years, told reporters at the presidential palace here ahead of Friday's election. "We shall win with a big majority."

Many commentators believe Friday's presidential election could be the closest since Museveni, a former guerrilla leader, grabbed power as head of the National Resistance Army in 1986.In 1996 polls, he took 75 percent of the vote, but his share dropped to 69 percent in 2001 and to 59 percent in the 2006 election.The campaign though has illustrated how he retains a formidable support base with tens of thousands of youths attending his final rally at an airstrip on the outskirts of Kampala on Wednesday afternoon.All those attending the rally, which included a concert by local musicians, had to undergo body checks, with Uganda having previously been targeted by Islamist bombers over the presence of its troops in Somalia.Observers say the opposition's best hope is to deprive Museveni of more than 50 percent of the vote, and then unite against the incumbent in a second round.

The most prominent of his seven challengers, Kizza Besigye, says Uganda has floundered under Museveni's rule and the opposition could ride a wave of revolt that has deposed despotic presidents in Cairo and Tunis.
Besigye's election posters around the capital Kampala promise "Change is Coming" but Museveni has dismissed comparisons with events in North Africa."We are not worried at all ... you just wait, you will see," Museveni said.
"There will be no Egypt-like revolution here ... Egypt is a different story. Tunisia is a different story."
Besigye said during the campaign that only rigging by the ruling party can deprive him of victory, and pledged to produce his own vote tally to challenge the official result, if necessary.Asked how he would react if Ugandans take to the streets to contest the poll results, Museveni said: "We just lock them up ... bundle them into jail and (bring them) to the courts."However, most analysts believe that Museveni, 67, will still secure enough votes to win another five-year term."By the end of these five years Uganda will be a middle-income country. I will not allow Besigye and others to mess up that plan," said Museveni before heading into the capital for a final campaign meeting.Besigye meanwhile held his last campaign rally on the campus of Makerere university. More than 10,000 enthusiastic supporters danced and screamed as they waited for his last speech of the campaign."I'm here to join and sing in one voice that change is coming," said 20-year-old Besigye supporter Jonathan Mukiibi. "Museveni has not provided anything for us."
Besigye ran against Museveni in 2001 and contested the results, but fled the country after a court awarded the election to his opponent. He returned to contest the 2006 election while at the same time fighting off rape and treason charges which were only dismissed after the polls had taken place. This time around, he has campaigned against Museveni without incident.


The president himself acknowledges that corruption, a key campaign issue, is rampant in the country. But he can point to a growing economy and future oil revenues, even if a third of Uganda's 33 million people live on less than one dollar a day. The incumbent's prospects have been further enhanced by two other key factors: the successful army offensive that pushed the feared Lord's Resistance Army rebels into neighbouring countries, and the fact that the opposition have failed to field a common candidate