Security personnel were out in force patrolling the capital, Kampala, on Saturday ahead of the official results.
Uganda’s election commission on Saturday declared incumbent Yoweri Museveni the winner of the presidential election, extending his 35-year rule as his main rival alleged fraud and urged citizens to reject the result.
Museveni won 5.85 million votes, or 58.64 percent, of the total while main opposition candidate Bobi Wine won 3.48 million votes or 34.83 percent, the electoral commission said in a televised news conference.
“The electoral commission declares Yoweri Museveni … elected president of the republic of Uganda,” said election commission chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama.
Wine, 38, galvanised young Ugandans with his calls for political change and pledged to end what he calls dictatorship and widespread corruption.
Security personnel and police were out in force patrolling the capital, Kampala, on Saturday. The government ordered the internet shut down the day before the election, and the blackout was still in place.
Museveni, 76, campaigned for another term arguing his long experience in office makes him a good leader while promising to keep delivering stability and progress.
Wine, a singer-turned-lawmaker whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said on Friday he had video proof of voting fraud, and would share the videos as soon as internet connections were restored.
Security forces had sealed off a wide perimeter around Wine’s sprawling compound on Saturday and told international journalists they were not permitted to enter, witnesses said.
Wine accused Museveni of fabricating the results and called the poll “the most fraudulent election in the history of Uganda”.
The army’s deputy spokesman, Deo Akiiki, told Reuters that security officers at Wine’s house were assessing threats he could face by going out: “So they might be preventing him in the interest of his own safety.”
ALJAZEERA
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