UGANDA: Bobi Wine rejects election results, declares self president-elect

AN opposition candidate and main rival to the incumbent President in the Uganda Presidential election, Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has called himself President-elect after rejecting the presidential election results held yesterday.

Bobi Wine made the affirmation when he addressed a press conference at his Kampala residence today, citing the election as the worst in the history of Uganda.

He described the early results released, which gave President Yoweri Museveni a wide lead as a “joke”.

He said, “I am very confident that we defeated the dictator by far. I call upon all Ugandans to reject the blackmail. We have certainly won the election and we’ve won it by far.

“The people of Uganda voted massively for change of leadership from a dictatorship to a democratic government. But Mr. Museveni is trying to paint a picture that he is in the lead. What a joke!”

Bobi Wine has been the major contender for the position challenge, Museveni, a septuagenarian, who has been in power for over three decades and is seeking a sixth term in office.

Wine had tweeted early in the day of “widespread fraud and violence’’ but maintained that he was confident of victory.

Incumbent President Museveni, having led the African country populated with over 45 million people since 1986, is yet to make any statement.

The election has witnessed irregular events with the government ordering an internet blackout until further notice on Wednesday, and banning all social media and messaging apps the previous day.

After Wine was not accepted as host by many media outlets in the country, he and his supporters had used Facebook to relay live coverage of his campaigns and news conference.

The election campaigns by oppositions encountered several deadly crackdowns by security forces on the opposition candidates and their supporters.

The country’s bubbling capital, Kampala, has been quiet on Friday, which is a public holiday after election Thursday’s with very few business activities.

Reuters confirmed that soldiers patrolled on foot in the rain in a suburb.

The head of the Electoral Commission, Simon Byabakama, had assured Ugandans on live TV after voting ended on Thursday evening that results were arriving at the national tally centre despite the nationwide internet blackout.

“We are not using local internet to transmit our results, we are using our own system,’’ Byabakama announced, but never gave details of the said system.

He asked the citizens not to worry, assuring them that the results will come.