Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Friday claimed victory in the presidential elections held yesterday, rejecting as a “joke” preliminary results that gave President Yoweri Museveni an early lead, AFP reports.
On Friday morning, the Ugandan electoral commission said incumbent President Museveni had taken a significantly early lead with over 60 percent of all votes counted.
The 38-year-old former musician turned politician whose real names are Robert Kyagulanyi has been the main rival to 76-year-old Museveni, who has been in power since 1986 and is seeking a sixth term.
The internet has remained down for a third day as vote counting continued.
Wine addressing the press said, “I am very confident that we defeated the dictator by far. I call upon all Ugandans to reject the blackmail. We have certainly won the election and we’ve won it by far. The people of Uganda voted massively for a change of leadership from a dictatorship to a democratic government. But Mr. Museveni is trying to paint a picture that he is in the lead. What a joke!”
Wine claimed the vote was marred by widespread rigging by Museveni’s regime and would detail the irregularities once the internet was restored.
According to the elections body, the full results are expected by Saturday afternoon.
More than 10 candidates are battling for the Museveni’s seat. There was a huge presence of soldiers and riot police roaming the streets and polling stations as Ugandans voted yesterday.
The poll followed one of the most violent campaigns in years, with harassment and arrests of the opposition, attacks on the media, and scores of deaths. 54 people died in two days of protests in November.
The United States, European Union, and the United Nations were denied permission to monitor the elections and have already raised concerns about the integrity and transparency of the vote. Only the African Union sent monitors to Uganda.
Ugandan Daily Monitor reports that by Friday evening, the electoral commission accounted for 5,125,703 votes (28.31%) of the 18,103,603 registered voters in an election that was projected to have an increase in voter turner up.