Ugandan President Clears 70% in Election Challenger Disputes

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni won his seventh term with 71.65% of the vote, according to official results Saturday, in an election marred by internet shutdown and fraud claims by his youthful challenger, who rejected the outcome and called for peaceful protests. The musician-turned-politician known as Bobi Wine took 24.72% of the vote, the final results showed. Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has condemned what he described as an unfair electoral process and alleged abductions of his polling agents, the AP reports. He said he had rejected the "fake results" and urged Ugandans to peacefully protest until the "rightful results are announced."

Wine said he had to escape to avoid arrest by security forces who stormed his house Friday night. His party said earlier he was taken away in an army helicopter by force; police denied that. Electoral officials face questions about the failure of biometric voter identification machines on Thursday, which caused delays in the start of voting in urban areas—including the capital, Kampala—that are opposition strongholds. After the machines failed, in a blow to pro-democracy activists who have long demanded their use to curb rigging, polling officials used manual registers of voters. The failure of the machines is likely to be the basis for any legal challenges to the official result.

Museveni said he agreed with the electoral commission's plan to revert to paper voter registration records after the biometric machines failed, but Wine alleged fraud, claiming that there was "massive ballot stuffing" and that his party's polling agents were seized to give an unfair advantage to the ruling party. The head of the observer mission for the African Union, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, told journalists Saturday that the mission did not find "any evidence of ballot stuffing" in the polling stations it checked. He did urge the electoral commission to test biometric machines in advance to prevent the failures and delays witnessed on election day. Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.