Uganda’s Electoral Commission has announced Yoweri Museveni winner of the presidential election, handing him a seventh term in office.
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate got 72 per cent of the vote, equivalent to 7,946,772 ballots, in the elections held on Thursday, January 15 across 146 districts.
His main challenger, National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, came second with 25 per cent, or 2,741,238 votes. Kyagulanyi has dismissed the outcome as a “massive fraud,” rejecting the results even before final tallying ended.
The election also saw Ugandans elect Members of Parliament in every district.
Museveni’s re-election bid focused on protecting past achievements and pushing Uganda toward high middle-income status, while Bobi Wine drew strong backing from young and urban voters seeking change.
Bobby Wine has in a video recorded from unknown location rejected the results, calling them as sham. He has urged the citizens of Uganda to as well reject the results.
Wine has called on Ugandans to hold non-violent protests.
Museveni, 81, first came to power as a rebel leader in 1986 but since then has won seven elections.
SEVEN DEATHS
The election process was marred by violence and Wine, a 43-year-old former pop star, says that at least 21 people have been killed around the country in recent days.
The authorities have so far confirmed seven deaths.
Access to the internet has been cut in the country since Tuesday, making it hard to verify information.
The authorities say the blackout was necessary to prevent misinformation, fraud and the incitement of violence – a move condemned by the UN human rights office as “deeply worrying”.
Wine has demanded that the internet be restored.
Overnight, Wine’s party said that he had been abducted from his home in the capital, Kampala – a claim denied by the police.
Wine later issued a statement on Facebook saying that he had managed to evade a night-time raid by security forces and was in hiding.
He had previously said he was under house arrest.
This has not been confirmed by the police but spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said Wine’s movements were restricted because his home was an area of “security interest”.
“We have controlled access to areas which are security hotspots,” Uganda’s Daily Monitor paper quoted him as saying.
“We cannot allow people to use some places to gather and cause chaos,” he said.
Additional reporting by Anita Nkonge, Lucy Fleming and Joseph Winter.
