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President Yoweri Museveni says it represents stability
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has a clear lead in the presidential race after Thursday’s vote, preliminary results show.
The country’s electoral commission has dismissed allegations of election fraud made by opposition candidate Bobi Wine, a former pop star.
But election supervisors say confidence in the count has been damaged by a three-day internet outage.
Final results are expected to be confirmed on Saturday.
Dozens of people died during the violence in the run-up to the elections. Opposition politicians have also accused the government of harassment.
President Museveni, who has been in power for 35 years, is awaiting a sixth term.
The 76-year-old says he stands for stability. Meanwhile, Bobi Wine, the stage name of Robert Kyagulanyi, 38, says he represents the younger generation in one of the youngest countries in the world, where the average age is 16.
On Friday, when the results came in, Bobi Wine said Ugandan soldiers had surrounded and raped his home.
“None of these military intruders are talking to us,” he said on Twitter. “We are in serious trouble.”
But a government spokesman accused him of “dramatizing” the incident “to seek sympathy.”
“Bobi Wine is a very important person at the moment. It is the duty of the state of Uganda to make sure he is safe,” said Don Wanyama.
What are the latest results?
According to provisional results from two-thirds of polling stations, Museveni has so far won 62% of the votes compared to 30% for Bobi Wine, the electoral commission said.
The head of the electoral commission, Simon Byabakama, said that the vote had been peaceful and asked Bobi Wine, who said that some of his electoral agents were arrested on Thursday, to make public the evidence of their fraud allegations.
The opposition candidate believes that the internet shutdown is being used to block communication and as a way to compromise the vote.
In addition to not being able to connect, people have had trouble texting.
“Several of our phone numbers, including mine and my wife’s, have been disconnected, they have been illegally disconnected,” Bobi Wine said, according to the Reuters news agency.
“I will be happy to share the videos of all the fraud and wrongdoing as soon as the Internet is restored.”
The electoral commission says that only two polling stations in the country reported major irregularities and voting was canceled in those places.
Wanyama, who is a spokesperson for President Museveni, also responded to Bobbi Wine’s claims of vote rigging.
“It did not meet the expectations of the Ugandans,” he told the BBC. “He had no message and the Ugandans have told him that he has to wait a little longer.”
Wanyama added: “We have challenged him to provide proof of his claims, he doesn’t have an iota of evidence.”
BBC correspondents say there is tight security in the capital Kampala, with soldiers and police patrolling the streets.
The EU, the United Nations and various human rights groups have previously expressed concern about the integrity of Uganda’s election.
But, apart from an African Union mission, there is currently no major international group monitoring the vote. Earlier this week, the United States, a major aid donor to Uganda, canceled its diplomatic observation mission in the country, saying that most of its staff had been denied permission to monitor polling places.
How serious was the violence during the campaign?
Violence reached an unprecedented level in the run-up to the war, and dozens of people died during repressions by the security forces.
The government says the ban on meetings was to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while the opposition says it was a smokescreen for the crackdown.
Bobi Wine and other opposition candidates have been arrested on several occasions, and during protests that followed an arrest in November, more than 50 people were killed.
Who is Yoweri Museveni?
Museveni, who came to power after an armed uprising in 1986, stands as the leader of the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Ugandans have long described him as a liberator and bringer of peace.
But he has managed to maintain his grip on power through a combination of fostering a cult of personality, employing patronage, compromising independent institutions and bypassing opponents, says the BBC’s Patience Atuhaire.
Who is Bobi Wine?
Bobi Wine is believed to be the strongest of the 10 opposition candidates in the presidential race.
The reggae star is known to his followers as the president of the ghetto.
His party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), campaigns for basic needs such as improving access to health care, education, clean water and justice.
Over the past two decades, Bobi Wine’s musical production has been filled with songs on these themes and they have inspired a fervent audience.
He grew up in the Kamwokya slum of Kampala, where he later built his world-famous recording studio.
Credit: BBC
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