adminKampala — Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni extended his three-decade rule yesterday, winning a fifth term with 60 percent of the vote in the country’s election, poll officials said.
“The commission declares Yoweri Kaguta Museveni the elected President of the Republic of Uganda,” Election Commission chief Badru Kiggundu said as he read results.
Kiggundu, the head of the election commission, said Museveni’s nearest rival, opposition leader Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change, got 35 percent.
The results have been rejected as fraudulent by Besigye’s party, which issued a statement ahead of the final results.
Besigye himself was under house arrest as the final tally was announced.
The election on Thursday was marred by lengthy delays in the delivery of polling materials, some incidents of violence as well as an ongoing government shutdown of social media.
Museveni, 71, has been in power since 1986. — AFP
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derick.khumalo