Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has won a decisive re-election victory on Saturday, elections officials said, but his main rival Bobi Wine has alleged widespread fraud and said citizens should reject the result.
Museveni won 5.85 million votes, or 58.6%, while main
opposition candidate Wine had 3.48 million votes (34.8%), the Electoral
Commission said at a news conference on the final results from Thursday’s
election.
Earlier, Wine accused Museveni of fabricating the results
and called the poll “the most fraudulent election in the history of Uganda”. In
a phone interview before the final results were announced, he urged citizens to
reject the results.
Wine, a singer-turned-lawmaker, also said his home in the
capital, Kampala, was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers and that the military
was not allowing him to leave.
The army’s deputy spokesman, Deo Akiiki, said security
officers at Wine’s house were assessing threats he could face by going out: “So
they might be preventing him in the interest of his own safety.”
Soldiers and police were out in force patrolling Kampala on
Saturday. Museveni, 76 and in power for 35 years, campaigned for another term
arguing his long experience in office made him a good leader and promising to
keep delivering stability and progress.
Wine, 38, galvanised young Ugandans with his calls for
political change and pledged to end what he called dictatorship and widespread
corruption.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said on Friday
he had video proof of voting fraud, and would share the videos as soon as
internet connections were restored. The government ordered the internet shut
down the day before the election, and the blackout was still in place.
The chair of Electoral Commission, Simon Byabakama, said on
Friday that under Ugandan law, the burden of proof rested with Wine.
The run-up to Thursday’s election was more violent than in
previous polls. Security forces cracked down on opposition candidates and their
supporters during the campaign, and more than 50 people died in protests in
November on one of the many occasions when Wine was arrested.
In addition to the internet blackout, the government on
Tuesday banned all social media and messaging apps. Wine and his supporters
often used Facebook to relay live coverage of his campaign. Guardian
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