Trump faces Kamala Harris, Democratic Party (DP) candidate and current vice president, in the polls.

Trump, who won the 2016 election after defeating the DP’s Hillary Clinton, was defeated in 2020 by the DP’s Joe Biden, who ended his re-election bid midway after intense pressure following his poor performance in a presidential debate against Trump to concede. to his deputy Harris.

But as Americans choose between Trump and Harris, governance and anti-corruption experts in Uganda fear that Trump will ignore the war on corruption.

They also fear that Trump could reverse the Global Magnitsky Act as he did when he won the presidency in 2016.

Sarah Birete, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Governance, said past experiences have shown that Republican Party leaders do not care deeply about global responsibility and human rights, unlike their Democratic Party counterparts.

“If Kamala Harris wins, there will be a growing push towards democracy, human rights and the fight against corruption, especially under the Global Magnitsky Act. “If Trump wins, the law will take a backseat as it did during his first presidency,” he said.

The official website of the US State Department states that the Global Magnitsky Act of 2016 within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2017 authorized the US government to sanction those officials of foreign governments around the world who are violators of human rights, freeze their assets and ban them from entering the US.

The sanctions primarily target systemic corruption and human rights abuse, including networks that engage in, facilitate or perpetuate sustained patterns of such illicit behavior.

Under the Biden administration and his Vice President Harris, a section of Ugandan public officials have been sanctioned under this law.

Parliament Speaker Anita Among, along with seven other officials, were banned from entering the United States of America on May 30 for alleged “significant corruption and serious violations” of human rights.

The other officials included Ms Among’s husband, Moses Magogo; the Minister of State for Finance, Amos Lugoloobi; former Minister of Karamoja Affairs, Mary Goretti Kitutu; former Minister of State for Karamoja Affairs, Agnes Nandutu; and former Deputy Chief of the Defense Forces, Major General Peter Elwelu.

The US State Department also sanctioned Ms. Kitutu’s spouse, Michael George Kitutu; and Lugoloobi’s wife, Evelyne Nakimera. Messrs. Magogo, Kitutu and Nakimera were punished for the alleged actions of their spouses.

“Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has been appointed due to her involvement in significant corruption linked to her leadership of the Ugandan Parliament,” department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in the May 30 statement.

Four months after these sanctions, in October the United States reimposed a travel ban on four Uganda Police Force (UPF) officers over allegations of serious human rights violations, including torture and cruel, inhuman treatment and punishment. or degrading.

The officers were Bob Kagarura, former commander of the Wamala regional police, and Alex Mwine, former commander of the Mityana district police, Elly Womanya, who at the time of the alleged human rights violation was senior commissioner and deputy director of the UPF Criminal Investigations Division in charge of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), and Hamdani Twesigye, formerly Deputy Police Inspector assigned to the SIU.

Activists said yesterday that such actions might not be seen during Trump’s reign because he focuses primarily on US domestic affairs.

“I hope to see more accountability-related sanctions on Uganda, whether Trump or Kamala Harris wins. If Harris wins, it will be a continuation of the Biden administration; Under Trump, he has looked more inward, focusing primarily on the United States and its retreat from the global stage. So if we want the sanctions to continue, Kamala has to make the decision,” said Marlon Agaba, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda (ACCU).

He added: “These decisions are always made by the technical branch, the officials of the US government, because even before Biden we saw human rights sanctions and we have seen the same thing in his government and we hope to see more accountability. “I don’t see anything changing with this election.”

During the Trump era, Uganda witnessed some sanctions when the US Treasury Department indicted former Inspector General of Police, General Kale Kayihura, on September 13, 2019, for allegedly engaging in corruption and human rights abuses.

Activists generally say the Democratic Party administration is tougher on corruption in foreign countries than the Republicans.

How the electoral college works

The Electoral College is the process by which Americans elect their president and vice president indirectly through their state’s electors. Candidates must get 270 electoral votes, the majority of the 538 at stake, to reach the White House. Before general elections, states select slates of electors.

After voters cast their ballots in November, the candidate who wins the popular vote determines which slate of electors (Republican, Democrat, or a third party) will cast electoral votes in the Electoral College for the president. In most states, it is winner-take-all: whoever gets the most votes in the state wins all of its electoral votes. In Maine and Nebraska, the rules are slightly different.

They have a system of proportional representation in which the winner of each congressional district receives one electoral vote and the winner of the statewide vote receives the remaining two electoral votes from each state. Electors meet in their respective states in mid-December to cast their votes for the president. The meeting takes place on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year falls on December 17. Each state is assigned electors based on the size of its congressional delegation.

Several states with the smallest populations – Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming – have three electors each, as they have one House representative and two senators, while California, the largest, It has 54 electoral votes. Washington, DC is also assigned three electors.

In the rare event that there was a tie in the Electoral College (which in the modern era would mean each candidate wins 269 electoral votes), the members of the newly elected House of Representatives would decide the outcome of the presidential election, while the Senate would choose the candidate. vice president.