KAMPALA, Uganda (CU)_Polls closed on Thursday evening (Jan 14) and paved the way for a rather delayed vote counting in Uganda’s highly contested, deadly election, which has so far claimed the lives of over 50 people in poll-related violence.
Internet access has been cut off, and there are fears of potential unrest as military personnel attempt to prevent supporters of leading opposition challenger Bobi Wine from monitoring polling stations.
Tallying at the main centre in Kyambogo, Kampala began after 2am Friday, five hours later than anticipated, and preliminary results from 330 polling stations (o.7%) gave incumbent president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni an early lead, with 50,097 votes (61.31%).
Meanwhile, opposition frontrunner and presidential candidate of the National Unity Party, Robert Kyagulanyi – better known by his stage name Bobi Wine – is trailing with 22, 802 votes (27.9%), and the Electoral Commission said that 153 votes have been deemed invalid so far.
“The results the EC boss Simon Byabakama puts out are his business. We are in this to win,” Bobi Wine told the press, shortly after voting on Thursday.
The Reggae singer also hinted on the possibility of rejecting the election results marred by gross irregularities, as several traditional opposition swing territories in the Kampala metropolitan reported cases of delayed voting and technological difficulties, while a ballot box was also stolen on Thursday.
Many other opposition figures have also expressed their intent to reject the results, should they swing in favour of veteran leader Museveni. “We warn Byabakama. He should know that he has an obligation to Ugandans not just Museveni,” one such opposition candidate, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, said on Thursday.
Uganda hasn’t peacefully transferred power since its independence from Britain in 1962. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, has had the constitution changed twice, once to remove term limits on presidents and the other to remove age limits for presidents, both which enabled him to legally remain in power.
Therefore, the January 14 election is largely seen by opposition figures as a crucial ‘revolution and referenda vote’ on whether Museveni, who has been in power for 35 years, can extend his rule to four decades or not.
