Bobi Wine says soldiers stormed his home as Uganda counts the vote | Uganda

Soldiers stormed Bobi Wine’s home, the Ugandan opposition leader said, as votes continued to be counted in the country’s elections.

“We are under siege”, the pop star turned politician tweeted. “The army has jumped over the fence and has now taken control of our house.”

President Yoweri Museveni took the lead as the votes were counted in Uganda’s most watched election in years, while opposition figures said the vote was marred by fraud and violence.

With a third of the votes counted, Museveni had over 65% of the votes counted and was ahead of Wine in almost every region. Wine, one of the 10 opposition challengers, won around a quarter of the vote, according to the Ugandan electoral body.

Lt. Col. Deo Akiiki, Uganda’s deputy military spokesman, said soldiers were at Wine’s house to protect him. “As a presidential candidate, do you want his security to be compromised? It is not a deployment to stop it. It is a deployment to keep his security like any other presidential candidate. It’s that simple.

Wine, who has galvanized a mass youth movement challenging the 34-year-old reign of the president, told a press conference on Friday morning that Ugandans should reject the results.

“I am convinced that we have defeated the dictator by far,” he said. “The Ugandan people voted overwhelmingly to change leadership from dictatorship to democratic government. But Mr Museveni tries to paint a picture where he is in the lead.

The results are expected to be announced by Saturday. A candidate must win more than 50% to avoid a second ballot.

Helicopters and tanks patrolled as millions turned out to vote on Thursday after one of the most turbulent and violent election campaigns. Wine’s rejection of the results could prolong heightened tensions in the East African country.

Security forces loyal to Museveni violently cracked down on opposition supporters during the campaign. Museveni’s candidacy for a sixth term in office was only made possible when lawmakers amended the constitution to remove age limits. He has repeatedly accused Wine of being a foreign backed “traitor”, while Wine called him a “dictator”.

Many in Africa see the challenge to Museveni, who at 76 is twice as old as Wine, as emblematic of a continent-wide generational struggle between aging leaders who refuse to relinquish power and younger voters. who are mobilizing against them.

The charismatic Wine has the support of many young Ugandans – where the median age is 15.7 – who are drawn to his anti-establishment message.

Many observers have expressed fears of state-backed measures to prevent transparency during the polls. Internet access was cut off for most users in the East African nation as of Wednesday evening, although some have used VPNs to communicate online. Uganda’s electoral commission said the lack of internet access had not affected the count count across the country.

After the polls closed on Thursday, hundreds of Wine supporters in Kampala returned to their polling stations to respond to his call to “protect the vote” by observing the count. At the post where Wine had voted, security forces drove his supporters away.

Isabella Akiteng, a civil society activist, said Thursday evening that she and 29 others observing the ballot boxes were arrested at a hotel in Kampala and were being questioned by police.

The United States and the EU said on Wednesday they would not observe the elections, after several officials were denied accreditation.

Peter Mwesigye, director of the African Media Center of Excellence, said it would take time to determine the extent of voter fraud and violence at polling stations.

“We certainly know that there have been credible reports of fraud, but it will be much more difficult and it will take us several more days to begin to understand the meaning and scope,” he said. “The shutdown of the Internet robbed the transparency process required for an election. It is essentially an environment which does not allow this to be qualified as free and fair elections. “

Lina Zedriga, vice president of Wine’s national unity platform for northern Uganda, said she would use all non-violent means to challenge the outcome. “It’s a mess. We have witnessed another fake and big fictitious election […] They just allege and create their own results.

“We call on our supporters to stay calm. They want us to provoke and make us violent. We are non-violent people. We will certainly use all possible non-violent means which will be discussed by our legal teams. “