Kampala, Uganda:
Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni has won a sixth term in workplace, the election commission mentioned Saturday, extending his 35-year rule immediately after a poll which his principal rival mentioned was marred by fraud.
The 76-year-old leader, who took energy in 1986, is 1 of Africa’s longest-serving presidents. He was accused of crushing the opposition and media ahead of 1 of the most violent election campaigns in current years.
Museveni won with 58.6 % of the vote, seeing off a stiff battle from 38-year-old former ragga singer Bobi Wine, who fired up a youthful population exactly where 3 quarters are below 30 years old.
Wine was below heavy guard at his property on the outskirts of Kampala as the benefits had been announced, with his party saying he was below “effective house arrest”. The government mentioned it was merely supplying him with safety.
The singer-turned-MP was amongst 10 opposition candidates and came second with 34.8 % of the vote.
“The electoral commission declares Yoweri Museveni… elected President of the republic of Uganda,” mentioned election commission chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama.
He mentioned turnout was 57.22 of nearly 18 million registered voters.
Security forces poured into the streets of Kampala immediately after the announcement, with 1 soldier atop an armoured personnel carrier urging citizens to keep social distancing as a helicopter buzzed overhead.
Images on state tv showed jubilant Museveni supporters in his property district waving flags and cheering, though soldiers in the capital helped marshal motorcycle drivers for a parade — handing them yellow vests and Museveni posters.
Museveni, in a wide-ranging speech on state tv immediately after the announcement, thanked his supporters and mentioned that now, “the only thing to avoid is violence”.
“I think this might turn out to be the most cheating-free election since 1962,” when the nation accomplished independence, he mentioned.
However, the election was marked by harassment and arrests of the opposition, attacks on the media and the deaths of at least 54 men and women.
US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus praised Ugandans on Saturday for voting “despite an environment of intimidation and fear”.
She added that the US was “deeply troubled by the many credible reports of security force violence during the pre-election period and election irregularities during the polls”.
Wine alleged widespread fraud such as ballot box stuffing and mentioned his party agents had in some locations been beaten and chased from polling stations.
“Whatever is being declared is a complete sham, we reject it and we dissociate ourselves with it,” he mentioned on Friday.
‘We do not manage them’
Wine’s property remained sealed off by soldiers and police on Saturday, immediately after he told AFP Friday evening that safety forces had breached the fence about it and he felt below “siege”.
The army’s deputy spokesman Deo Akiiki mentioned the soldiers had been there for “his own security”.
However, the spokesman for Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP), Joel Ssenyonyi, told AFP Bobi Wine “is under effective house arrest”.
“People are angry because their vote has been stolen. They don’t need me or Bobi Wine to tell them to get angry,” Ssenyonyi mentioned. “Even we can’t control them.”
Disappointed at Wine’s loss, 31-year-old carpenter Dennis Agaba complained that “the election was not fair”.
However, 35-year-old electrician Dennis Tusiime was celebrating the outcome, describing himself as “very, very happy.”
Tibor Nagy, the top rated US diplomat for Africa, tweeted the vote was “fundamentally flawed”, citing the denial of accreditation to election observers and “violence and harassment of opposition figures”.
The world wide web has been down for 4 days, and government spokesman Ofwono Opondo mentioned the measure was taken due to “abuse, misuse, disinformation, fake news with the overall objective of undermining the integrity of the electoral process including the results… and possibly to cause destabilisation”.
He mentioned the world wide web would be restored after the threat had passed, possibly on Monday morning.
Odds stacked against Wine
Museveni has ruled Uganda without the need of pause given that seizing manage in 1986, when he helped to finish years of tyranny below Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
Once hailed for his commitment to goo
d governance, the former rebel leader has crushed any opposition and tweaked the constitution to enable himself to run once again and once again.
For quite a few in the nation, exactly where the typical age is 16 and most have recognized only 1 president, Museveni’s glory days are no longer relevant or enough.
Wine, with his humble origins in a slum and well known songs about financial and social injustice, struck a chord with young men and women. But observers mentioned the odds had been stacked against him with Museveni’s effective grip on the state.
Wine’s newly-formed NUP is nevertheless on track to turn out to be the principal opposition party in parliament, notably winning eight of nine constituencies in the capital Kampala.
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