KAMPALA: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni won his seventh term with 71.65 percent of votes, according to official results Saturday, defeating the youthful challenger who campaigned for change after four decades of the same government.
The musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine took 24.72 percent of the vote, the final results showed. Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, is expected to reject the official outcome. He has condemned what he described as an unfair electoral process, marred by an Internet shutdown, military deployments and the alleged abductions of his polling agents.
Electoral officials also face questions about the failure of biometric voter identification machines on Thursday, which 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 manual registers of voters. The failure of the machines is likely to be the basis for any legal challenges to the official result.
Earlier Saturday, police in Uganda denied reports that the main opposition candidate in this week’s tense election had been arrested, terming the reports as “deceitful and inciteful.”
They urged citizens to remain peaceful as the country awaits the results in the presidential vote.
Uganda held a general election on Thursday amid an Internet shutdown that has been in place for four days, with the military heavily deployed across the country and pockets of violence erupting as people protested parliamentary election results in various parts of the country.
Museveni was seeking a seventh term in office and was leading in the provisional results with more than 70 percent support. His main challenger, Wine, was holding 20 percent of the vote. He dismissed the announced results as “fake,” and asked his supporters to ignore them.
Police on Saturday said that Wine was “not under arrest,” as claimed by his National Unity Platform party. Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke said Wine 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.
“It should not surprise you when we have a pickup or two near the residence of Kyagulanyi,” Rusoke said.
Ugandan electoral officials are set to announce the final presidential results on Saturday, as constitutionally required. The chairperson of the national electoral commission said Friday that everything was on course to announce the final result by the end of the day Saturday.
The voting was marred by delays due to the late delivery of materials to polling stations after opening time and the failure of some biometric machines.
President Museveni said he agreed with the electoral commission’s plan to revert to paper voter registration records, 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.
The security forces were a constant presence throughout the election campaign, and Wine said authorities followed him and harassed his supporters, using tear gas against them. He campaigned in a flak jacket and helmet due to his security fears.
Wine wrote Thursday on X that he was unable to leave his house, and on Friday his party wrote that he had been arrested and taken away in an army helicopter.
Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.
Veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate, remains in prison after he was charged with treason in February 2025.