Uganda President Yoweri Museveni. Photo: X
Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni has yet again won the Presidential election to lead Uganda for another 5 years marking his 7th term in office since 1986.
Museveni who has been in power since 1986 won the elections with 71.65 percent making up 7,944.772 million votes closely followed by Robert Kyagulanyi of the opposition National Unity with 24.7 percent accounting for 2,741,238 million votes.
Simon Byabakama the head of Uganda’s electoral commission making the announcement in Lubowa, an outskirt of Kampala noted that having obtained the highest number of votes in the election, and votes cast being more than 50 percent of the valid votes at the election. “The commission hereby declares the elected President, candidate Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni.”
The elections were held amidst heightened tension as security officials shot rowdy youth in different parts of the country in sporadic cases of violence. It is still not confirmed how many lost their lives.
Populalry known as Bobi Wine, the NUP leader rejected the results saying they do not reflect what happened at the polling station. “Because, those so-called results that they are declaring are fake.”
Wine, in a video on X said his house was under siege since Thursday after voting and reported a break in at his house on Friday night by security. “They used ladders to climb over our fence. They cut off our electricity. They cut off our cameras and were being assisted by a helicopter that was hovering in the sky over our compound.”
Several arrests of supporters of the opposition National Unity Platform were made even before the elections. This includes the arrest of Sarah Bireete, activist and Executive Director for Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), a Uganda Constitutional Watchdog.
Ten civil society groups including human rights, media, and election monitoring organizations were also suspended ahead of the elections.
The Uganda Communication Commission in announcement Wednesday, announced a temporary internet shutdown leaving the country in the dark.
Addressing the media Saturday, in Kampala, the head of the East African Community Observers Mission, Edda Makabagwiza expressed some concerns. “This had a direct impact on the compilation and analysis of field reports from our observers.”
Noting that access to information and freedom of expression are rights critical to protect during election periods. Tomiwa Ilori the senior technology, rights and investigations researcher at Human Rights Watch called for an immediate restoration of full connectivity with clear commitments against future shutdowns, essential to safeguard transparency and the integrity of the vote in Uganda.”
Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz the deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch described the indefinite suspension on what he called, vague and unsubstantiated grounds of organizations whose work promotes civil and political rights, as evidence of Uganda’s disregard for free speech and freedom of association.
Makabagwiza pointed out that some delays on polling day caused frustrations for some voters. “During opening all polling stations visited opened late with an average delay of three hours due to late delivery of election materials, malfunction of biometric voter verification kits and delayed set ups of polling stations.”
Six other candidates participated in the Presidential race that had 11,366,201 Ugandans participate in 50,739 polling stations countrywide.