Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni wins seventh term with 71.65% of votes

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni won his seventh term with 71.65% of votes, according to official results Saturday, defeating the youthful challenger who campaigned for change after four decades of the same government.

The musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine took 24.72% of the vote, the final results showed. Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, is expected to reject the official outcome. He has condemned what he described as an unfair electoral process, marred by an internet shutdown, military deployments and the alleged abductions of his polling agents. On Friday, he dismissed the provisional results as “fake.”

Electoral officials also face questions about the failure of biometric voter identification machines on Thursday, which caused delays in the start of voting in urban areas — including the capital, Kampala — that are opposition strongholds.

After the machines failed, in a blow to pro-democracy activists who have long demanded their use to curb rigging, polling officials used manual registers of voters. The failure of the machines is likely to be the basis for any legal challenges to the official result.

Museveni, 81, has stayed in power over the years by rewriting the rules. The last legal obstacle to his rule – term and age limits – have been removed from the constitution, and some of Museveni’s possible rivals for the presidency jailed or sidelined. He has not said when he will retire.

Yusuf Serunkuma, an academic and columnist for the local Observer newspaper, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Wine “didn’t stand a chance” against the authoritarian Museveni. “He has quite successfully emasculated the opposition,” Serunkuma said of Museveni. “You would have to credit him for that.”

Even with Wine’s courageous challenge, Museveni faced “one of the weakest oppositions” in recent times, in part because opposition figures are not united while Museveni is the undisputed leader of his party and enjoys authority over the armed forces, Serunkuma said.

Wine’s party had on Friday said he had been detained and taken from his home by an army helicopter but police on Saturday dismissed the reports as “deceitful and inciteful.”

The police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke said Wine was “not under arrest,” as claimed by his party and was free to leave his house, but there was “controlled access” for others trying to go into the property, to prevent people from using the premises to incite violence.

“It should not surprise you when we have a pickup or two near the residence of Kyagulanyi,” Rusoke said.

President Museveni said he agreed with the electoral commission’s plan to revert to paper voter registration records after the biometric machines failed, but Wine alleged fraud, claiming that there was “massive ballot stuffing” and that his party’s polling agents were abducted to give an unfair advantage to the ruling party.

The security forces were a constant presence throughout the election campaign, and Wine said authorities followed him and harassed his supporters, using tear gas against them. He campaigned in a flak jacket and helmet due to his security fears.

Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.

Veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate, remains in prison after he was charged with treason in February 2025.