President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday that his landslide victory in Uganda’s election showed the dominance of the National Resistance Movement, the party that has governed the East African country for about four decades.
Speaking a day after he was declared the winner, Museveni told the nation that the result gave “a good taste of the strength” of his party. Museveni, 81, said the outcome reflected how strongly his party could mobilize even though Thursday’s vote had drawn low turnout, which he said left the opposition “lucky” that it had not seen “our full strength.”
Museveni said voter turnout stood at 52%, describing it as the lowest since Uganda’s return in 2006 to multiparty politics. He also said he believed many people who did not vote were members of the governing party. Addressing the nation from his country home in western Uganda—where dignitaries gathered—Museveni said he had not publicly spoken since the victory.
According to official results, Museveni won more than 71.6% of the vote, while his closest challenger and prominent opposition leader Bobi Wine received 24.7%. Wine rejected the official result as fake, and the article said he has the option of launching a legal challenge. It also said courts previously refused opposition efforts to nullify Museveni’s victories while recommending electoral reforms.
In his speech, Museveni accused the opposition of trying to foment violence during voting and urged religious leaders to reach out to young people he said were likely to be misled into violence. Museveni also said that at least seven opposition supporters of a losing parliamentary candidate with Wine’s party were killed by police after they attacked a polling station with machetes in Butambala district, adding: “Some of the opposition are wrong but also terrorists,” and calling Wine and others “traitors.” Wine has previously rejected the charge as false.
The article said that on Sunday Wine posted footage on the social platform X that he said showed alleged incidents of ballot stuffing and intimidation of his representatives on the eve of voting. It reported that authorities did not immediately respond to those specific allegations.
Uganda’s election was also marked by technical and logistical disruptions, including a dayslong internet shutdown and failures of biometric voter identification machines that caused delays in the start of voting in areas including Kampala. The article said biometric failures are likely to be a basis for any legal challenge, and it noted that Wine has alleged ballot boxes were stuffed in some areas considered Museveni’s strongholds.
Museveni’s account of the campaign environment contrasted with Wine’s claims about security forces during the vote. The article said security forces were a constant presence throughout the campaign and that Wine said authorities followed him, harassed his supporters, and used tear gas against them. It said Wine campaigned in a flak jacket and helmet because of security fears.
Museveni, Africa’s third-longest-serving governing president, has stayed in power over the years by rewriting rules, the article said. It added that the last legal obstacles to his rule—term limits and age restrictions—have been removed from the constitution and that some possible rivals have been jailed or sidelined. It reported that Museveni has not said when he will retire and has no rivals in the upper ranks of his party, and that he is set for a seventh term that would bring him closer to five decades in power.
Opposition figures remain under pressure as well. The article said veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye remains in prison after treason charges that Besigye says are politically motivated. It also said Uganda has not seen a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.