Jump to navigation

Uganda

Opposition contender Wine asks court to overturn President Museveni's election win

Calls grow for international sanctions against state repression as evidence of vote-rigging emerges

After two weeks of house arrest, the military siege around opposition leader Bobi Wine's home has been gradually lifted and he responded by filing a challenge on 1 February at the Supreme Court to the election results giving President Yoweri Museveni 59% of the votes in the 14 January elections. 

The Court is due to rule on the matter by 6 February. It has dismissed challenges to the results of the last four elections with a formulaic assessment: evidence of malpractice may be correct it isn't enough to have changed the national result. 

This time, Wine and his National Unity Platform party have accumulated copious video and audio recording which they say proves systematic voter fraud across the country. Many of their claims are borne out by local independent electoral observer missions.

Wine has met United States Ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown and British High Commissioner, Kate Airey, for talks about the elections and political conditions (AC Vol 62 No 2, Iron fist carries the day).

Angered by the denial of accreditation for most of their election observers and the blocking of a meeting between the US ambassador and Wine, officials in Washington are said to be mulling sanctions, visa bans, aid cuts and other coordinated actions against officials in Museveni's government.

Having faced a police and military onslaught during the election campaign, including over 50 deaths after over 50 people were killed in clashes in the capital, Wine and his party will have to choose their next move carefully if, as expected, the Supreme Court rejects their challenge (AC Vol 61 No 24, Museveni falls back on force).



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...


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...


Poaching and gamekeeping

An increasingly public rift has opened between Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye and the celebrated journalist Andrew Mujuni Mwenda. Mwenda been accusing Besigye of lacking a...


Fighting on a new front

The United States’ containment policy has failed and, with its regional ambitions strengthened, Al Shabaab is back on the front foot

President Yoweri Museveni welcomes African Union leaders to Kampala on 25 July playing a role he has made his own: military leader and regional policeman. Ugandan opposition politicians...


Showing who's boss

President Yoweri Museveni's plan to sell a piece of the Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group for sugar production has triggered violence by demonstrators and security services.