Uganda’s opposition leader Bobi Wine has told the BBC he will not contest the results of Thursday’s election in court, citing a lack of confidence in the judiciary, and has instead urged his supporters to take to the streets to peacefully protest.
Speaking to the BBC from hiding, he said he would continue to stand up to President Yoweri Museveni despite concerns for his safety.
“The judiciary in Uganda is captured, and we encourage Ugandans to use any legal means to fight back and protect their democracy,” the 43-year-old former pop star said.
Museveni, 81, won the vote by a landslide and has accused the opposition of seeking to overturn the results through violence, calling them “terrorists”.
He gained 72% of the vote while Wine, his closest challenger, got 25%.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, maintains the results are “fake” and has cited “ballot stuffing” without providing any details.
During his interview, Wine also hit out at the security forces for not allowing food into his family home, where his wife and relatives are effectively under house arrest. He says he fled the house, in a suburb of the capital, Kampala, on Friday night during a raid by the security forces.
“We reject those results because they are fake and they don’t in any way reflect the voting pattern. They are completely different from the results in the electoral polling stations and on the declaration forms,” Wine told the BBC, speaking from an undisclosed location.
The authorities have not responded to his allegations, but the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) said the “technical and procedural” challenges observed on polling day did not undermine the overall fairness of the vote.
In their report, the African Union (AU) election observers said they saw “no evidence of ballot stuffing”, but condemned the days-long internet shutdown, which only returned hours after President Museveni was declared the winner on Saturday.
After losing to Museveni in 2021, Wine challenged the results but later withdrew the petition, citing what he called the court’s bias and lack of impartiality.
Wine, who has lost his presidential bid for a second time, also alleged there was an ongoing “silent massacre” as political activists were targeted in a crackdown.
In a social media post, he said more than 100 people had been killed in election violence – without stating evidence.
More than 100 youths have been remanded in prison on various charges linked to election-related incidents across Kampala, the Daily Monitor newspaper reported.
In a post on X on Monday, Uganda’s army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also President Museveni’s son and his potential successor, said the security forces had killed 22 opposition supporters during poll-related violence.
Gen Kainerugaba also threatened Wine, giving him “exactly 48 hours to surrender himself to the police”.
“If he doesn’t, we will treat him as an outlaw/rebel and handle him accordingly,” he said.
In his BBC interview, Wine said he fled his home after learning that security forces were planning to “attack” him.
“They jumped off my fence and cut off my electricity and the surveillance cameras. I saw it was dangerous for me to stay around,” said Wine, who has not been seen in public for days.
“You have heard Museveni’s son promising to harm me. He has promised to harm people, and he has delivered on it. You have read his recent tweets. That’s why I have to be careful with myself,” he said.
Although the internet was restored late on Saturday, Wine said he was not able to reach his wife because of signal jammers near his home.
The police have denied raiding the opposition leader’s home, saying the security deployment was to protect him as a presidential candidate.
Wine went on to call for a “peaceful change” of regime, saying protests were constitutional rights.
“We encourage Ugandans to evoke any constitutional means to fight back,” he added.
On Tuesday, Donald Muhwezi, a local police chief in Kampala, told local media that police were not concerned about Wine’s whereabouts, “as long as he is safe”.
In his victory speech on Sunday, Museveni said his election win showed the dominance of his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Museveni first came to power as a rebel leader in 1986, but since then has won seven elections.
Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence.
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