To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the legitimacy of the outcome of the last general election in Uganda.

As my honourable friend Henry Bellingham, the Minister for Africa, noted in his statement of 22 February 2011, we fully endorse the preliminary findings of the EU and Commonwealth observation missions to Uganda, which noted that while there have been improvements in the overall conduct and transparency of the elections, they were marred by avoidable shortcomings in their organisation. We share the observer missions' concern that the power of incumbency was exercised to such an extent as to compromise severely the level playing field between the competing candidates and political parties.

The Government will encourage all those elected and all Uganda's political stakeholders, including Uganda's Government, political parties and the Electoral Commission, to reflect on the assessments of the independent observers, build on positive developments, and address the shortcomings identified in order to strengthen pluralistic, multi-party democracy in Uganda.