Yahoo Finance Ugandan opposition leader under arrest as Museveni wins sixth term
Bobi Wine, the Ugandan pop star turned politician, was under house arrest on Saturday after losing the country’s presidential election. President Yoweri Museveni extended his near 35-year grip on power, winning a sixth term, after an election marred by widespread accusations of fraud and violence, as well as an internet shutdown.
“No one is allowed in my house,” Wine said. “The military has taken total charge. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me and my wife in the next minute.” Wine called for US president-elect Joe Biden to intervene. “I want the world to know that he [Museveni] should be held accountable.”
Museveni, 76, won 59% of the vote – his lowest share since becoming president in 1986 – but Wine, whose official tally was 34%, claimed to have video evidence showing vote-rigging and that the vote had been undermined by “fraud and violence”. On Friday he dismissed early results showing Museveni in the lead and said: “The people of Uganda voted massively for change of leadership from a dictatorship to a democratic government.”
The electoral commission was unable to explain how votes were transmitted from across the country during an internet blackout, merely telling reporters in Kampala that “we designed our own system”.
Voter turnout was just 52%, the lowest since Museveni came to power, a reflection of the dangerous political atmosphere, created by state authorities since the campaign began in November.
More than 55 people were killed during unrest in November after Wine was officially confirmed as a candidate, and he has been detained and prevented from campaigning on numerous occasions.
Members of his party and other opposition figures have been attacked and arrested, often purportedly because of rallies held in breach of Covid-19 restrictions. Helicopters and tanks have patrolled the skies and emptied the streets of Kampala and other cities.
At least 30 Ugandan election observers were arrested on the eve of Thursday’s vote and remain detained, with many condemning reports of fraud, intimidation and irregularities.
Yet observer teams from the African Union (AU), which has been reluctant to criticise Museveni, were circumspect. The head of the AU team, Samuel Azuu Fonkam, told reporters its mission was “limited” and largely focused on the capital, Kampala. Asked about Wine’s allegations of rigging, he said he could not “speak about things we did not see or observe”.
The East African community observer team said while there was “disproportionate use of force in some instances” by security forces, the polls “demonstrated the level of maturity expected of a democracy”.
The EU, US and UN had earlier refused to monitor the election after several officials were denied accreditation.
Peter Mwesige, director of the African Centre for Media Excellence, said the extent of voter fraud and violence at the polls would take time to emerge.
“We know definitely there have been credible reports of fraud, but it’s going to be much harder and it will take many more days for us to begin to get the sense and scope of it,” he said. “The shutdown of the internet robbed the process of transparency that is required of an election. It has basically been an environment that doesn’t qualify for one to call it a free and fair election.”
Museveni has presided over steady economic growth and progress in healthcare and infrastructure since coming to power, after the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin. Yet Uganda remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with rising inequality and high youth underemployment.
The veteran leader has faced mounting accusations at home and abroad of cracking down on dissent, while increasing political patronage and corruption in the east African nation of more than 40 million.
A population with a median age of 16 has grown less enamoured of his stature as a leader rescuing the country from Amin, and while he retained power, his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has suffered significant losses.
Thirty Ugandan ruling party MPs, including many in Museveni’s cabinet and the vice-president, lost their seats, largely to younger opposition figures in Wine’s National Unity Platform party.
According to Mwambutsya Ndebesa, an academic at Makerere University, Kampala, the results indicate long-term challenges for Museveni’s administration. “For a person who has been the incumbent and has all organisational factors in his favour, it does seem that this win was not an easy win,” he said. “To me it seems the legitimacy of NRM is winding [down],” he said.
A galvanised opposition has attracted mass support from many in Uganda and across Africa, drawn by Wine’s populist, anti-establishment message, railing against inequality, political patronage and autocratic leaders. Wine has repeatedly branded Museveni a dictator.
The message has appeal in a continent with the world’s youngest population, and leaders increasingly changing constitutions to maintain their grip on power.
On the streets of Kampala, Museveni’s supporters were jubilant as they received the certificate from Uganda’s electoral commission confirming their leader’s victory.
Justine Lumumba, secretary general of the ruling NRM, said: “I want to thank the Ugandans for having come out to decide who should lead us. I am so happy.”
Pockets of NRM supporters, donning the party attire and yellow colours, came out blowing whistles and drumming to celebrate, despite the Covid-19 ban.
“We are happy president Museveni has won. He was voted in on the basis of his key achievements and accomplishments,” said an excited Becky Adeke in Luzira, a Kampala suburb.
But even she recognised the country faced problems. “He must focus on fighting some of the vices that have caused people to revolt and rebel. Corruption must be dealt with, government must support and deliver quality education and health services to the people.”
