KAMPALA: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has scored a decisive election victory to win a sixth term, the country's election commission said on Saturday, but his main rival Bobi Wine denounced the results as fraudulent and urged citizens to reject them.
The 76-year-old Museveni, in power since 1986 and one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, won 5.85 million votes, or 58.6% in Thursday's election. Wine had 3.48 million votes (34.8%), the Electoral Commission said in announcing the final results.
The campaign was marked by a deadly crackdown by security forces on Wine, other opposition candidates and their supporters. In the run-up to the vote local civil society groups and foreign governments questioned its credibility and transparency, after scores of requests for accreditation to monitor the election were denied.
The United States and an African election monitoring group complained of election irregularities and Wine, a 38-year-old singer-turned-lawmaker who had rallied young Ugandans behind his call for political change, called the results a "complete fraud".
"It's an election that was taken over by the military and the police," he said in a phone interview from inside his home in the capital, Kampala, which was surrounded by soldiers who he said had forbidden him from leaving.
Museveni argued in the campaign that his long experience makes him a good leader and promised to keep delivering stability and progress. By 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), four hours after results were announced, the president had not issued a statement.
The government ordered the internet shut off the day before the vote and has not yet restored it.
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