Museveni declared winner of Uganda election as opposition rejects results

Uganda’s Electoral Commission declares President Yoweri Museveni the winner of the presidential election after a roughly 48-hour delay in releasing results, extending his rule into a seventh term. Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, the commission chair, announced tallies that give Museveni 7,944,772 votes, or about 71.65% of the total, while opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, is reported to have received roughly 2,741,238 votes, about 24.7%.

The announcement cements the 81-year-old Museveni’s decades-long dominance of Ugandan politics. First taking power in 1986, he will enter what election authorities and political analysts describe as a fifth decade in office. Supporters gathered in Kampala for celebrations after the results were made public, even as the broader political atmosphere remained tense.

The vote unfolded under an officially imposed internet blackout that cut access to social media, messaging apps and many online news sources across large parts of the country. Authorities said the shutdown was ordered for security reasons. Human rights groups and the United Nations condemned the electoral environment, with the U.N. describing the process as marred by "widespread repression and intimidation." Critics say restrictions on communication, limits on opposition campaigning and the barring of international observers severely constrained transparency.

Accounts of election-related violence vary. Some reports place the death toll at least at 10, while others cite at least seven fatalities in clashes overnight and during the campaign. Rights organizations and local civil society groups described widespread intimidation, arrests and confrontations between security forces and opposition supporters in the run-up to and on voting day.

Robert Kyagulanyi rejected the results, accusing authorities of fabricating the outcome and urging his followers to pursue nonviolent protest. In his statements and social media posts he accused the authorities of "fake results" and "ballot stuffing." Kyagulanyi posted on X that he escaped a police and army raid; his party says his home was stormed and that he was later "forcibly taken" by an army helicopter, a claim the military denies. His supporters and civil society groups signaled plans for protests in response to the declaration.

International observers issued mixed assessments. African Union monitors reported they saw "no evidence of ballot stuffing," even as other observer groups and the U.N. highlighted the restrictive conditions under which the election was held. Turnout figures vary in initial accounts; the commission’s published totals imply participation in the range of roughly half the electorate.

Legal challenges to the result and calls for independent verification are expected, but the path forward is uncertain amid the communications blackout and restrictions on international access. The dispute highlights a wider tension between claims of electoral legitimacy from state institutions and allegations of suppression from opposition leaders and rights monitors. As night fell across Kampala, the country faced the simultaneous realities of a declared victor and a political opposition pushing back, setting the stage for a contentious period ahead in Uganda’s fraught political life.