World Uganda: Museveni's victory buries the last illusions of electoral democracy

Uganda wraps up violent and chaotic election campaign

Uganda is bracing for a charged vote next week after a campaign mired in disarray and violence, with President Yoweri Museveni accused of seeking to hold onto power at any cost. Candidates have been arrested, rallies banned, and dozens of protesters killed in the chaotic and bloody runup to the January 14 election, which is going ahead despite a surging coronavirus pandemic. Some 18 million voters are registered for the presidential and parliamentary ballot, which pits Museveni and his dominant National Resistance Movement (NRM) against a host of opposition candidates and parties.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is set to clinch a sixth straight election victory , with preliminary results showing he trounced his nearest rival -- whose party is disputing the initial count. With 9.8 million ballots tallied from 91% of polling stations, Museveni garnered 59% support, and pop

Uganda ’ s president, Yoweri Museveni , has won a sixth term in office, according to an official tally from Thursday’ s election , as his main rival, Bobi Wine, alleged widespread fraud and rejected the result. After one of the most turbulent election campaigns in Ugandan history

© YASUYOSHI CHIBA After President Yoweri Museveni's victory, Saturday in Kampala. The re-election of the Ugandan president on Saturday after a campaign marked by strong repression against the opposition confirms a worrying trend in Africa: the loss of credibility of the vote, seen only as a means of keeping the same people in power .

"Tulonde!" (“Let's vote” in Luganda). This is the title of Bobi Wine's last song, released in early January. In Uganda’s election Thursday, the hugely popular 38-year-old artist was the main opponent of the country's strongman Yoweri Museveni, 76, thirty-five of whom are in power. Thanks to social media, the whole world has been able to observe the relentless repression that has targeted the camp of the daring challenger, repeatedly beaten, targeted by gunfire or threatened by the old president's police apparatus. The only one known to Ugandans under 30, or 80% of the population. Then two days before the poll, the Internet was cut. Move along, there is nothing left to see ! And it is no surprise that we learned on Saturday that Museveni was declared the official winner with 58.6% of the vote against 34.8% attributed to Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi.

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Uganda ' s longtime leader Yoweri Museveni has been re-elected for a sixth term in a vote his rival has rejected as rigged, calling on the "We are the real winners of this election and therefore what the electoral commission announced has nothing to do with the real election that took place," Wine told

Uganda ' s main opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine says his life is being threatened following Thursday' s election which saw Yoweri Museveni win a sixth elected term. The singer-turned-politician told the BBC that he rejected the results "with the contempt they deserve".

Despite digital censorship, the latter managed to make it known that he would legally oppose these scores, which his supporters considered to be truncated. But this weekend, Bobi Wine and his wife remained isolated, deprived of food, in their house blocked by a large military device on the outskirts of Kampala, the capital. This is not the first time that Museveni has been suspected of cheating in the election. It is not the first time that the Internet has been cut there on the eve of a presidential election. And this is certainly not the first time that the current regime has generously poured out large sums of money to "convince" part of the voters in a country where more than 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.

Pop star-turned-politician challenges Uganda's strongman in presidential election

Pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine is the main opposition candidate challenging Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Thursday's election. But the 38-year-old pop star-turned-politician, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, told Kenyan radio station Hot 96 FM that it's all "worth it.

© Provided by dw.com Museveni has been accused of electoral fraud in his attempt to hold onto power after 35 years. The sitting president of Uganda , Yoweri Museveni , was on Saturday declared the winner of the presidential election by the country' s electoral commission.

President Yoweri Museveni has won a sixth term as president, Uganda ’ s electoral commission said on Saturday while top opposition challenger Bobi Wine alleged rigging and officials struggled to explain how polling results were compiled amid an internet power cut.

Steamroller

But this time, the charismatic personality of the main opponent, showing incredible courage in the face of law enforcement, gave this electoral duel special visibility. However, Bobi Wine "could not" win in the face of a patronage state apparatus in the hands of those close to the President, whose wife is Minister of Education and son in charge of special forces. Only the violence in broad daylight of the repression was a surprise, openly sanctioning a facade electoral democracy. One more time.

Because in Africa, the same lack of consensus on the electoral process was observed in October during the elections in Côte-d'Ivoire, with opponents imprisoned and violence that left 85 dead. Even neighboring Ghana, long regarded as a model of democracy, did not escape accusations of skewed results in the December 11 poll. And if the vote seems to have gone better in the Central African Republic and Niger, on December 27, the opponents also knew in advance that they had no chance against the steamroller of a fully state apparatus. in the hands of the regime in place. Unfortunately, we can also bet that the next elections which will take place this year in Congo Brazzaville or in Chad will end, again without surprise, with yet another CDD for Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Idriss Déby, who have respectively thirty-two and thirty years in power in countries yet ruined.

Ugandans to vote in tense election after violent campaign

Ugandans were to cast their votes Thursday in a high-stakes election held under heavy security as veteran leader Yoweri Museveni pursues a sixth term against a former pop star half his age. Soldiers swarmed the streets of the capital and authorities blocked access to social media after one of the most violent election campaigns in years. Some 18 million voters are registered for the presidential and parliamentary vote, which will unfold in nearly 35,000 polling stations.Museveni has ruled Uganda without pause since seizing control in 1986, when he helped to end years of tyranny under Idi Amin.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has scored a decisive election victory to win a sixth term, the country' s election commission said on Saturday, but his main rival Bobi Wine denounced the results as fraudulent and urged citizens to reject them. The 76-year-old Museveni

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni won a decisive re- election victory on Saturday, elections officials said, but his main rival Bobi Wine alleged widespread fraud and said citizens should reject the result. UP NEXT. NOW PLAYING: World. Uganda ' s Museveni declared election winner.

Election pranks

It remains to be seen what lessons will eventually draw the deceived and abused voters when faced with these electoral pranks. Ironically, the outcome of the Ugandan elections came to light this weekend as we commemorated the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, a young charismatic prime minister then in charge of the immense Congo. Violence always succeeds in silencing courageous or atypical leaders as well as their supporters.

But African youth now observe the world through the window of smartphones and no longer accept as easily as their elders to submit to a life on the cheap. Therefore, on this continent, the youngest in the world, the only choice left is either immigration to escape intolerance or resort to open rebellion. The "strongest reason" may be the best, and only in the short term. And the immediate victim of this strategy is the election that no longer inspires confidence.