Military holding back Uganda elections results

Uganda's ruling military commission has blocked release of results from Uganda's national elections. Paulo Muwuanga, chairman of the five-man commission that seized power in May, virtually usurped power from the nation's electoral commission, decreeing that officials in charge of the polls would transmit the voting results directly to him without making them public. Violators of the proclamation faced a possible $70,000 fine and five years' imprisonment. Mr. Muwuanga said that after receiving the reports, he would personally decide whether the election had been free and fair in each area and then either declare elected the candidates with the most votes or nullify the results of the election. Muwuanga, a close associate of former President Milton Obote, leader of the Uganda People's Congress party, gave no reason for the action. But the announcement came after the Democratic Party, the main rival to Mr. Obote's party, said it had won 66 of the 126 seats in the new Parliament, which would give it a clear majority and legal authority to name Uganda's next president.