Amidst allegations of electoral fraud, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been re-elected for the sixth term in office with 58.6 percent of the vote.
Museveni, 76, has been in power for more than three decades.
“The electoral commission declares Yoweri Museveni… elected President of the Republic of Uganda,” said election commission chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama.
His main rival, Bobi Wine trailed with 34.8 percent, but rejected the result, saying it did as not represent the outcome of the election.
Bobi Wine, a singer-turned-politician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, came a far second in the vote, according to the country’s election commission.
Wine said his team was considering all peaceful, nonviolent and legal options to contest the results, as fears of post-election unrest surfaces, following deadly violence in the months leading up to the vote.
“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 CNN immediately after the announcement.
“I can call on all Ugandans to reject the announcement that has been made by the electoral commission … to reject them with the contempt with which it deserves.”
The election commission said Museveni won in a landslide, with 58.64% of the nearly 10 million ballots cast, while opposition Wine received 34.83% of the vote.
Dozens of people were killed in the months running up to the vote, including 45 who died in protests in November alone, after Wine was arrested for allegedly breaking Covid-19 restrictions.
“It is clear that the violence has not been coming from the people of Uganda, the violence has been coming from the police and the military,” Wine said, when asked whether he feared his call to reject the results would lead to violence.
Ugandans voted in the poll on Thursday amid the internet shutdown. In a speech Tuesday, Museveni confirmed his government had ordered internet providers block Facebook and other social media, accusing the platforms of “arrogance.”
The internet in Uganda has been shut down for days under a government order.
