Uganda’s Museveni wins sixth presidential term amid disputes
President Yoweri Museveni won a sixth term as president, Uganda’s electoral commission said yesterday,
But leading challenger Bobi Wine accused Mr Museveni of rigging as officials struggled to explain how results were compiled amid an internet breakdown.
Mr Wine, 38, a former singer, posed arguably the greatest challenge yet to Mr Museveni, who has held power since 1986.
Mr Wine had strong support in urban centres where frustration with unemployment and corruption is high.
The electoral commission said Mr Museveni received 58 per cent of ballots and Mr Wine 34 per cent, and voter turnout was 52 per cent.
The top US diplomat to Africa called the electoral process “fundamentally flawed”.
Thursday’s vote followed the East African country’s worst pre-election violence since the Mr Museveni, now 76, took office over three decades ago.
Mr Wine and other opposition candidates were often harassed, and more than 50 people were killed when security forces put down riots in last November over his arrest.
Mr Wine petitioned the International Criminal Court this month over alleged torture and other abuses by security forces.
While the president holds on to power, at least 15 of his Cabinet ministers, including the vice president, were voted out, with many losing to candidates from Mr Wine’s party, local media reported.
Mr Wine, who claimed victory on Friday, said he had video evidence of vote-rigging and that every legal option was being explored to challenge the official election results.
Those can be challenged at the Supreme Court.
Hours later, he tweeted that the military had entered his home compound and “we are in serious trouble”. A military spokeswoman rejected the claim.
Mr Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was roughed up and arrested several times while campaigning but was never convicted. Eventually he campaigned wearing a flak jacket and said he feared for his life.
A heavy presence of security forces remained around his home, where he has said he was alone with his wife and a single security guard.
Uganda’s electoral commission said Mr Wine should prove his allegations of rigging, and it deflected questions about voting results being transmitted during the internet shutdown by saying “we designed our own system”.
Monitoring of the vote was further complicated by the arrests of independent monitors and the denial of accreditation to so many members of the United States’ observer mission that was later called off.
Another major observer, the European Union, said its offer to deploy electoral experts “was not taken up”.
“Uganda’s electoral process has been fundamentally flawed,” the top US diplomat for Africa, Tibor Nagy, tweeted yesterday. “The US response hinges on what the Ugandan government does now.”