President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of Uganda’s election on Saturday, granting Africa’s longest-serving leader a seventh term in office. African observers have denounced “reports of intimidation, arrest and abductions” targeting the opposition that they say undermined the polls’ credibility.
Museveni won 71.65 percent of votes in Thursday’s presidential election, according to official results. His closest challenger, former entertainer Bobi Wine, took 24.72 percent.
Wine said earlier on Saturday that he was in hiding after security forces raided his home and placed his family under house arrest. The police deny seeking to detain him.
The election took place amid an ongoing internet shutdown and a heavy security presence, with Wine alleging his party’s polling agents were abducted to give the ruling party an unfair advantage.
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“Reports of intimidation, arrest and abductions of opposition leaders, candidates, supporters, media and civil society actors by security forces instilled fear and eroded public trust in the electoral process,” former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan told reporters in Kampala before the final results were announced.
He was representing election observers from the African Union, as well as regional bodies for east and southern Africa, Igad and Comesa.
Members of east African civil society gathered in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Friday also claimed to have witnessed election fraud.
“Lots of polling stations opened hours late. Many had not received their voting kits. Some had ballot boxes that were already full,” said Mwanase Ahmed of Jumuiya ni Yetu, a coalition of African civil society organisations.
“In a few polling stations, we were able to follow the vote count live, and the estimates published today are very different.”
Ugandan opposition MP abducted and tortured ahead of elections
Opposition leader in hiding
Museveni, 81, has been in power for 40 years. Under his leadership, presidential term and age limits have been removed from Uganda’s constitution, and some of his possible rivals for the presidency have been jailed. He has not said when he will retire.
Wine declared his “complete rejection of the fake results” and said he was on the run after a raid on his home on Friday night.
“I want to confirm that I managed to escape from them,” Wine posted on X on Saturday. Currently, I am not at home, although my wife and other family members remain under house arrest.
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“I know that these criminals are looking for me everywhere and I am trying my best to keep safe,” said Wine, who was arrested multiple times before his first run for the presidency in 2021.
Police denied they had raided Wine’s home but said they had “controlled access in areas we feel are security hotspots”, adding they believed the opposition leader was still at home.
“We have not necessarily denied people accessing him but we cannot tolerate instances where people use his residence to gather and… incite violence,” police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke told reporters.
‘He represents a population desperate for change’, Bobi Wine’s lawyer tells RFI
No surprise
The other major opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, who ran four times against Museveni, was abducted in Kenya in 2024 and brought back to a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is ongoing.
Museveni’s ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, also has a commanding lead in parliamentary polls held alongside the presidential vote, according to provisional results. Ballots are still being counted.
African affairs expert Jeffrey Smith, of pro-democracy think tank Vanguard Africa, told RFI before the final presidential result that Museveni was widely expected to win.
“I suspect we’ll see an overwhelming reported victory for Museveni and a concerted government crackdown thereafter,” Smith said.
Concerns were now focused on what comes next for the country, he added – pointing to Uganda’s young population and warning of deeper instability.
(with newswires)
