Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has now achieved a minimum economic recovery for Uganda and the challenge now is to build a stronger East African integration.

Museveni said the next 5 years will see him work toward East African integration and a stronger Africa.

President Museveni was speaking at Kololo Airstrip in Kampala as the NRM celebrated its victory in the recently concluded presidential elections in which Museveni was re-elected into power in the country's first multi-party elections in 26 years.

He described his victory as the 6th when the people of Uganda have registered under the NRM leadership, saying that the other 5 victories were the defeat of the Amin dictatorship in 1979, the defeat of Milton Obote tyranny in 1986, the Constitutional Assembly elections of 1994, the first ever direct presidential elections in 1996 and the 2001 presidential elections.

The president thanked the people of Uganda for overwhelmingly returning him to office during the recently concluded presidential elections and pledged to deliver ever better services to the country during the next 5 years.

Museveni has collected 59.28 percent of the ballots cast in February 23 presidential elections, while his main rival Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has received 37.36 percent of the voters.

On the current problem of electricity, President Museveni said that his government has laid strategies to improve the situation which will include using energy saving bulbs, elimination of transitional power losses, introduction of solar panels and use of energy saving stoves.

He said that power generation is going to be stepped up by using thermal generators.

He informed the people his government will subsidize power during off peak hours and build power generating dams at Karuma and Bujagali on River Nile.

He added that taxes on residential houses has been abolished and daily market dues levied on petty traders have also been abolished.

Source: Xinhua