By: Sumaya Hussein (husseinsumaya1@gmail.com)
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Citizen TV
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been declared the winner of Uganda’s presidential election with 5,851,037 (58.64%) of the total electoral votes. Opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, came in second with 3,475,298 (34.83%) of the total votes. Museveni who has ruled Uganda since 1986, now going for his sixth term, is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Bobi Wine had on Friday claimed that the election had seen “widespread fraud and violence”, but he remained positive as votes were counted under an internet blackout.
“Despite the widespread fraud and violence experienced across the country earlier today, the picture still looks good. Thank you, Uganda for turning up and voting in record numbers,” Wine tweeted shortly after internet was restored.
Moreover, he went ahead to say that there was ballot stuffing and his party agents had in some places been beaten and chased away from polling stations.
“Whatever is being declared is a complete sham we reject it and we dissociate ourselves with it,” added Wine on Friday, promising to provide video evidence once the internet was restored.
He, however, did not give details about his accusations which contradicted the government’s account that the Thursday’s vote had been peaceful with no major cases of violence reported.
The Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Uganda also noted that they were impressed with the peaceful conduct exhibited on Thursday during voting. “We saw an extremely well-organized election exercise with people very orderly waiting to cast their votes and everything went on very peacefully. We are impressed…the (Electoral Commission) presiding officers were very professional,” Ambassador Pacifici said.
The election took place with no major international observer mission aside from the African Union, with the United States saying too many of its staff were denied permission to monitor the vote.
Biometric polling machines were used at 34,000 polling stations. Once past the biometric verification, voters were directed to three ballot boxes to vote for their district level, parliamentary, and presidential candidates.
Police had advised people not to go out to celebrate or protest after results are announced citing draconian COVID-19 rules that were regularly used to crack down on the opposition.