Jump to navigation

Uganda

Oppositionist Bobi Wine plans next move with party supporters after court orders military to end house arrest

PREVIEW

Government keeps close watch on youthful opposition movement as discontents surge after elections marred by state violence

After a High Court ruling on Monday (25 January) ordering police and army officers to leave Bobi Wine's home, which they had surrounded since election day on 14 January, his National Unity Platform is mulling its response to what it says is President Yoweri Museveni's stolen victory at the polls. On 26 January, Wine told a press conference the army had pulled back from its occupation of his compound but was continuing to harass him and his family, sometimes buzzing his house with military helicopters.

Last week, the electoral commission declared Museveni the winner with 59% of the vote against Wine's 35% giving the veteran incumbent a sixth term.

Wine is seeking all legal means to challenge the result. The High Court ruling is the first, albeit small, step towards a wider legal challenge (AC Vol 62 No 2, Iron fist carries the day). If those legal means of challenge include the mobilisation of Wine's supporters in mass protests in support of his claims about the elections, the government's response is likely to be fierce.

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2025
https://www.africa-confidential.com

Prepared for Free Article on 01/04/2025 at 18:51. Authorized users may download, save, and print articles for their own use, but may not further disseminate these articles in their electronic form without express written permission from Africa Confidential / Asempa Limited. Contact subscriptions@africa-confidential.com.

Related Articles

Iron fist carries the day

Brutal suppression of the opposition and voter intimidation won President Yoweri Museveni another term of office

Although President Yoweri Museveni won the presidential election with 59% of the vote on a 57% turnout according to the electoral commission, over a dozen of the ruling...

Fourth for M7

Having amended the constitution to allow him to run for a third consecutive term in 2006, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni intends to run for a fourth five-year term....

The north makes its stand

The prospect of the opposition uniting behind a single candidate against President Museveni in next year’s election is diminishing

A year ago, opposition politicians agreed to form a national alliance, the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue, to defeat incumbent President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, now in his 24th year...

Museveni falls back on force

The President seems to have run out of subtle tactics for dealing with Bobi Wine’s electoral threat and is resorting to brute force

The dozens of killings by security forces in recent opposition protests indicate the Ugandan authorities intend to rely on brutal repression to cow the population, intimidate voters, and...

Unity or bust for 2021

The opposition is finding unity elusive while the President is already on the campaign trail ahead of the next elections

In the wake of the recent brutal attacks by security forces on protestors in Kampala, pundits ponder why the formidable mass movement of Bobi Wine and Kizza Besigye's...


Stories by country

Footer Map