Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine has rejected the results of the Uganda 14th January 2021 presidential election and called himself President-elect.
Bobi Wine was addressing a press conference at his Kampala abode on Friday when he said the election is the worst in the history of Uganda.
He described early results, which gave President Yoweri Museveni a wide lead as a “joke”.
“I am very confident that we defeated the dictator by far. I call upon all Ugandans to reject the blackmail. We have certainly won the election and we’ve won it by far.
The Internet has remained down for a third day as vote counting continued, with provisional results from 29 percent of polling stations giving Museveni an early lead of 63 percent while Wine trailed with 28 percent.With 29.4 per cent of votes from Thursday’s ballot counted, Museveni had won 1,852,263 votes, or 63.9 per cent while Bobi Wine had 821,874 or 28.4 per cent, the commission said just after 11.00 a.m. (0800 GMT).
Wine, a singer-turned-lawmaker who has galvanised young Ugandans with calls for political change, told a news conference on Friday he had filmed proof of fraud during voting and that he wanted a peaceful outcome to the vote.
He had said in a tweet early in the day that he was confident of victory despite “widespread fraud and violence’’.
Museveni, who has led the East African country with a population of nearly 46 million for 34 years, had not made any statement by noon. (0900 GMT).
On Wednesday, the government ordered an internet blackout until further notice, a day after banning all social media and messaging apps.
Wine and his supporters used Facebook to relay live coverage of his campaigns and news conference after he said many media outlets had declined to host him.
The election campaign was marred by deadly crackdowns by security forces on opposition candidates and their supporters.
Uganda’s normally bustling capital Kampala was quiet on Friday, a public holiday after Thursday’s poll, with shops mostly closed.
Soldiers patrolled on foot in the rain in a suburb visited by Reuters.
Commission head, Simon Byabakama, assured the nation on live TV on Thursday evening after polls closed that results were arriving at the national tally centre despite the nationwide internet blackout.
“We are not using local internet to transmit our results, we are using our own system,’’ he said, without giving details of that system.
Don’t worry, results will come,’’ Byabakama added.