KAMPALA: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has scored a decisive election victory to win a sixth term, the country’s election commission said, but his main rival Bobi Wine denounced the results as fraudulent and urged citizens to reject them. The 76-year-old Museveni, in power since 1986 and one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, dismissed the allegations of fraud in an address to the nation, saying last week's election may turn out to be the “most cheating free” in Uganda’s history.
The Electoral Commission said final counts showed Museveni won 5.85 million votes, or 58.6%, while Wine had 3.48 million votes (34.8%). The campaign was marked by a deadly crackdown by security forces on Wine, other opposition candidates and their supporters. In the run-up to the vote local civil society groups and foreign governments questioned its credibility and transparency, after scores of requests for accreditation to monitor the election were denied.
The United States and an African election monitoring group complained of election irregularities. Britain said it was concerned by a national internet shutdown that began the day before the vote, and that it said constrained freedoms and “clearly limited the transparency of the elections”. In a statement, British Minister for Africa James Duddridge also called for concerns about the election process to be investigated.
Wine, a 38-year-old singer-turned-lawmaker who had rallied young Ugandans behind his call for political change, called the results a “complete fraud”. “It’s an election that was taken over by the military and the police,” he said in a phone interview from inside his home in the capital, Kampala, which was surrounded by soldiers who he said had forbidden him from leaving.
“It further exposes how dictatorial the Museveni regime is,” added Wine, who campaigned to end what he called widespread corruption. “It’s a mockery of democracy.” Army deputy spokesman Deo Akiiki said that security officers at Wine’s house were assessing threats he could face: “So they might be preventing him in the interest of his own safety.”
Museveni argued in the campaign that his long experience makes him a good leader and promised to keep delivering stability and progress. Museveni criticised “the elite” for problems with the national education and health systems and noted that Uganda has surplus supplies of sugar, milk and maize. Reprising a familiar refrain, he said he is not in government to enjoy a good life, which he has as a farmer, but rather to address historical challenges. The government banned all social media and messaging apps and later ordered the internet shut off and has not yet restored it.
