Uganda President Yoweri Museveni now says he has never bribed voters.
He termed bribery of voters as a colossal mistake, counterproductive and unnecessary.
He further discouraged politicians in his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party from advancing politics of handouts.
Museveni said politics is about consistent conveyance of one's ideologies and policies until the ideas begin to resonate with the electorate.
"It will be good if the people listen to what these leaders are proposing and elect them. If they are not elected, they should move on, do other activities and remain financially stable," he said.
The NMR leader was speaking on Tuesday while meeting the party's flagbearers and chairpersons from five divisions of Kampala.
Museveni who has been at the helm of leadership in Uganda since 1986 said not once has he ever used money to woo the electorate.
He told the flagbearers that the electorate would keep electing them "if you consistently convey the message of the NRM".
"For all my 63 years in Uganda's politics, I have never sold my cows to facilitate elections. Politics is about diagnosis and prescription. You're like a doctor who checks for the disease, prescribes the medicine, and later, the doctor is paid - the sick pay the doctor, not the other way around," he said.
"Therefore, I call upon the leaders to promote government programmes and promote politics of unity among Ugandans to create a common market for goods."
Most political parties in Africa use different methods to mobilise voters during campaigns including holding rallies and door-to-door canvassing.
But the distribution of handouts - vote buying - is most common in much of Africa.
‘You'll strangle yourself with those vocals,’ Salasya told