KAMPALA: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni won his seventh term with 71.65% of the vote, according to official results Saturday, in an election marred by a days-long internet shutdown and rigging claims by his youthful challenger, who rejected the outcome and called for peaceful protests.
The musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine took 34.72% of the vote, the final results showed. Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has condemned what he described as an unfair electoral process and alleged abductions of his polling agents before voting had even started in parts of the East African country. He said he rejected the “fake” results and urged Ugandans to peacefully protest until the “rightful results are announced”.
Wine said he had to escape to avoid arrest by security forces who stormed his house Friday night. Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke said Wine was “not under arrest” and was free to leave his house, but there was “controlled access” for others trying to go into the property to prevent people from using the premises to incite violence.
Electoral officials face questions about the failure of biometric voter identification machines on Thursday that caused delays in the start of voting in urban areas including the capital, Kampala, that are opposition strongholds. After the machines failed, in a blow to pro-democracy activists who have long demanded their use to curb rigging, polling officials used hard-copy registers of voters. The failure of the machines is likely to be the basis for any legal challenges to the official result.
Museveni said he agreed with the electoral commission’s plan to revert to paper records of voters after the biometric machines failed, but Wine alleged fraud, claiming that there was “massive ballot stuffing” and that his party’s polling agents were abducted to give an unfair advantage to the ruling party.
Voter turnout stood at 52%, the lowest since the country’s return in 2006 to multi-party politics.