NAIROBI, Kenya – Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni won a sixth term, the country’s electoral commission said on Saturday after a campaign marked by lethal repression of the opposition, an internet blackout and allegations of adulteration and manipulation of wishes.
The result gives Museveni, who came to power in 1986 and is one of Africa’s oldest leaders, for a new five-year term. It also ends a bitter and bloody campaign for its opponents – especially its main rival, the musician who became lawmaker Bobi Wine.
Mr. Wine was beaten and bruised, his entire campaign team was arrested and his house was surrounded and invaded by the military. On Saturday, Wine challenged the results, saying that Museveni’s government had “manufactured” them.
“We reject what they are advertising,” he said in a telephone interview in Kampala, the capital. “We have our evidence, but they are keeping the Internet turned off so that we don’t communicate it to the world”, he said, of the blackout that started on the eve of the January 14 election. “We won,” he added.
Under Museveni’s command, Uganda proved to be a close western military ally in East Africa, with troops serving as peacekeepers in Somalia, where officials have long fought against the Qaeda-linked Al Shabab group. Ugandan recruits also served as private security guards and worked closely with American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Museveni’s deep political and military ties to the West for years protected him from direct criticism, even when human rights groups criticized his crackdown on pro-democracy movements.
The electoral commission said Museveni received more than 5.8 million votes, or 58.6% of the total votes, while Wine received 3.4 million votes, or more than 34% of the total votes. There were 18.1 million registered voters out of a population of about 45 million.
Although Ugandan opposition candidates have faced repression in the past, “the joke during this election was unprecedented,” said Su Muhereza, a Ugandan political commentator. “There was only one man like Bobi could do against the machine” of what she called a “state of security”.
Mr. Museveni came to power as head of a revolutionary movement 35 years ago, promising to defend democracy, to safeguard the lives of Ugandans in a nation torn by coups and violence, and lamenting the corruption and greed that prevented African leaders from fulfilling their aspirations people.
At the time, he and his cadres “saw themselves as essential leaders, not just of the country’s politics, but of a whole new national culture,” said Derek R. Peterson, professor of African history and studies at the University of Michigan.
But over time, Museveni and the government’s National Resistance Movement have strengthened their control over power by misusing public funds, employing sponsorship, using state institutions to harass opposition leaders and mobilizing security forces to intimidate civil society groups. and the media.
As their power strengthened, Museveni and his rulers became increasingly convinced that only they had “the right to create Uganda’s destiny,” said Peterson.
“Where he used to be a juvenile arsonist,” said Peterson, Museveni “now speaks like an elder, reminding his people of the virtues of the old culture, demanding deference, criticizing the decadence of young people.”
In Thursday’s vote, these young Ugandans were represented by Wine, a 38-year-old rapper who became a lawmaker who faced the biggest challenge yet to Museveni’s government. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, asked Museveni to step down and pointed to corruption, chronic unemployment and precarious public services across the East African country.
Authorities responded by arresting Wine – including the day he applied in November – and accused him of violating restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.
The arrest of Wine and other opposition figures sparked protests across the country that led to the deaths of at least 54 people while security forces dispersed the protesters. While the campaign was heating up at the end of last year, Museveni accused the opposition of being supported by foreign “agents” and “homosexuals” and said they wanted to start an “insurrection” that would sow chaos across the country.
Citing government abuses, Wine in early January filed a lawsuit at the International Criminal Court against Museveni and nine senior security officials, accusing them of attempted murder and human rights violations.
On Saturday, Wine hit a challenging note, promising to challenge the results in court and show the world that he was the rightful winner.
Local and foreign election observers questioned the validity and transparency of the vote after being prevented from monitoring it for lack of accreditation. The United States mission in Uganda said 75 percent of its accreditation requests were denied, pressing it to cancel the observation of the vote.
A report seen by The New York Times, which had contributions from 2,000 observers to the Africa Elections Watch coalition deployed in 146 districts across the country, documented late openings in most polling stations, incidents of illegally opened polls and the arrest of 26 members of civil society groups who were watching the election.
Wine said that between 50 and 60 military officers were still encircling his seven-acre property and that they were preventing people from leaving or entering his home.
“The government is doing this to intimidate me, to make sure I don’t speak to the world,” he said, adding that he hopes the international community will defend Ugandans. “I am happy that the world is starting to see Museveni as he is.”