Ugandan opposition candidate, Bobi Wine has claimed victory in presidential elections, rejecting as a “complete sham” early results that gave President Yoweri Museveni a wide lead.
The 38-year-old former singer said his party’s polling agents were beaten and chased away in parts of northern and western Uganda, that ballot boxes were opened and stuffed, and that some voters were only given ballots for the parliamentary election.
With provisional results from 29 percent of polling stations, President Yoweri Museveni is in an early lead of 63.9 per cent while Bobi Wine trailed with 28 percent.
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In rejecting the results declared so far, Bobi Wine alleged that Thursday’s polls saw the worst vote-rigging in Uganda’s history but did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. He declared the struggle is just beginning.
Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, says he will address the press again in a few hours on the way forward.
Early results from the electoral commission give the incumbent, President Yoweri Museveni, a commanding lead of almost two-thirds of the votes so far counted.
Full results are expected by Saturday afternoon.
However, contrary to Wine’s claim, election commission chief Simon Mugenyi Byabakama said the vote had gone off in a “peaceful and tranquil manner”.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga said there had been “no major cases of violence reported”.
But a senior foreign diplomat told AFP there had been sporadic incidents of violence and many irregularities but no sign of mass manipulation.
Meanwhile, the United States, European Union, United Nations and global rights and democracy groups have raised concerns about the integrity and transparency of the election.
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On Wednesday, the United States, a major aid donor to Uganda, announced it was cancelling a diplomatic observer mission after too many of its staff were denied permission to monitor the election.
Only one foreign organisation, the African Union (AU), has sent monitors, along with an AU women’s group.
