Nairobi, Jan 16 (EFE).- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni holds a commanding lead in the vote count following the country’s general election, according to partial results released Friday by the Electoral Commission.
The 81-year-old leader of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) came to power in 1986 and is seeking a contentious seventh term following a campaign marred by repression of the opposition.
So far Museveni has garnered just over 3.9 million votes (76.25 percent) after 44.9 percent of polling stations reported.
His main rival, Robert Kyagulanyi, the 43-year-old singer and leader of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP), better known as Bobi Wine, is in second place with just over 1.3 million votes (19.85 percent).
The third position is held by Nathan Mandala of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), who obtained approximately 108,000 votes (2.08 percent), while the five remaining presidential candidates each failed to reach even 1 percent of the vote.
According to the Electoral Commission, the final results will likely be released Saturday.
The partial vote count was released a day after after Bobi Wine’s party reported late Thursday that military and police forces had surrounded the opposition leader’s home in Magere neighborhood, on the outskirts of capital Kampala, «placing him and his wife under house arrest» after the election.
Some 21.6 million voters—out of a total population of approximately 46 million—were eligible to vote at more than 50,000 polling stations.
Ugandans voted to elect a president under heavy police presence and with a temporary internet blackout, following months of crackdown on the opposition.
Eight candidates are vying for the presidency for a five-year term. Voters also elected members of parliament during the day.
Bobi Wine denounced «massive» electoral fraud and the arrest of leaders from his party in the polls, which were marred by technical failures of the biometric verification equipment.
These failures even affected Museveni when he voted at Karo High School in Kiruhura district.
The opposition leader seeks to unseat Museveni, who came to power 40 years ago after leading a guerrilla war that overthrew his predecessor, and whom he already faced at the polls in 2021. The president is the fourth longest-serving African leader, having amended the Constitution twice to remove age and term limits, thus allowing him to run for reelection.
The election campaign has been marred by obstacles imposed by the authorities against the opposition, including the detention of at least 550 people, according to the UN Human Rights Office. EFE
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