UGANDA Election: Museveni Declared Winner of Disputed Uganda Presidential Election

 

Elections Commission boss Justice Simon Byabakama has declared Yoweri Museveni Turuhagurwa Kaguta as the winner of the 2020 Uganda Presidential Elections.

At the 10th and final reading of the cumulative results declarations, Justice Byabakama noted the ‘resilience and determination’ of the people of Uganda who turned up to elect their leaders in the Parliamentary and Presidential elections even as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to be a threat to public health.

The opposition leader, who has been arrested multiple times during the campaigning, earlier said to reporters that the presidential election was marred by ‘fraud and violence’ he promised to provide detail evidence after the siege or his house arrest.

Bobi Wine said he would detail election irregularities by the ruling party once the internet was restored. The internet remained down for days as vote counting continued.

Security personnel out in force as longtime president wins sixth term and main challenger Bobi Wine alleges rigging.

A polling agent from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party celebrates the victory of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni [Baz Ratner/Reuters]

Uganda’s electoral commission has declared incumbent Yoweri Museveni the winner of the country’s presidential election, extending his 35-year rule as his main rival Bobi Wine alleged fraud and urged citizens to reject the result.

Museveni secured 5.85 million votes, or 58.64 percent, of the total votes cast, while main opposition candidate Bobi Wine won 3.48 million votes or 34.83 percent, the commission said in a televised news conference on Saturday. Vote turnout was 52 percent.

“The electoral commission declares Yoweri Museveni … elected president of the republic of Uganda,” said Chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama. Other Presidential candidates are in the picture below:

The final declared results are as below:

10^th Reading of the provisional Uganda 2020 Presidential Election Results- Saturday 16/01/2021 3.30 pm local time

• Registered Voters: 18,103,603
• Polling stations: 34,684 thus:

• Museveni 5,851,037 (58.64)
• Kyagulanyi 3,475,298 (34.83%)
• Amuriat 323,536 (3.24%)
• Muntu 65,334 (0.65)
• Kabuleta 44,300 (0.44%)
• Mao 55,665 (0.56%)
• Tumukunde 50,141 (0.50%)
• Kalembe 37,469 (0.38%)
• Katumba 35,983 (0.36%)
• Mwesigye 24,673 (0.25%)
• Mayambala 14,657 (0.15%)

• Valid Votes 9,978,093
• Invalid Votes 381,386 (3.68% of votes cast)
• Total votes declared 10,359,479 (57.22%) of total registered voters

Speaking to Al Jazeera shortly after, Bobi Wine’s representative Benjamin Katana described the announcement as “an attempt to undermine the will of the people in Uganda”.

“The legal framework in Uganda gives us a number of opportunities and options to which we can contest this unfair process and going through the Supreme Court is one of the options,” Katana added. “We ask the people of Uganda to stand firm and work with us to explore all the options … to make sure that we stop this coup.”

The results were announced as Bobi Wine was under heavy guard at his home on the outskirts of the capital, Kampala, with his party saying he was under “effective house arrest” and the government saying it was merely providing him with security.

They also followed one of the bloodiest campaigns in years, with harassment and detentions of opposition figures, attacks on the media and the deaths of at least 54 people in protests in November, on one of the multiple occasions when Bobi Wine was arrested.

Security personnel and police were out in force patrolling Kampala on Saturday. The government ordered the internet shut down the day before the election, and the blackout was still in place.

Bobi Wine, a singer-turned-lawmaker whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said on Friday he had video proof of voting fraud and would share the videos as soon as internet connections were restored. He accused Museveni of fabricating the results and called the poll “the most fraudulent election in the history of Uganda”.

Byabakama said under Ugandan law, the burden of proof rested with Bobi Wine. The commission has deflected questions about how countrywide voting results were transmitted during the internet blackout by saying “we designed our own system.” He could not explain how it worked.

“The entire process has been conducted in [the] dark and it lacks transparency,” Katana, head agent of Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform, told Al Jazeera from the tally centre in Kampala. “From the beginning, we were assured by the electoral commission that each candidate or their agents will receive copies of the results from the districts before they are transmitted to the national tally centre, so we are able to verify when they are reading here – and that was not done.”

The lessons for Nigerian youths yearning for changes are enormous. It's obvious here that politics and noise are polls apart. Changes or electoral victories require serious grassroots campaign based on conviction of the electorates to stand by the best candidates. 

Aljazeera and Wisper Eyes

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