Opposition subjected to brutal campaign repression as Museveni declared President

Uganda opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine arrives to casts his ballot in Kampala on January 15, 2026. [AFP] President Yoweri Museveni was yesterday declared the winner after trouncing seven other Presidential candidates in an election that characterised brutal campaign repression against the Opposition leaders and supporters, which included injuries, arrests and deaths. Museveni's closest rival pop-star turned politician Bobi Wine trailed him after managing to get 24.72 of the total votes cast while the veteran President got 71.61 per cent of the total votes from the votes cast. Other Opposition leaders who are little known shared the remaining votes. They included retired Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu of Alliance for National Transformation Party. Muntu is a former army commander of the Uganda peoples' Defence forces, former Forum for Democratic Change President and former Uganda representative to the East African Legislative Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania. Munyagwa Mubarak Sserunga of Common Man's Party was also in the race. Others included Frank Bulira Kabinga (Revolutionary People's Party), Robert Kasibante (National Peasants Party), Nandala Mafabi (Forum for Democratic Change) and Elton Joseph Mabirizi (Conservative Party). Mabirizi, an engineer and Pentecostal preacher previously vied for president in the 2016 general elections and garnered 24,498 votes, giving him 0.28 per cent of the total vote. Other than the eight candidates who have been salivating for the 21.6 million votes, voters also voted for 353 MPs and 146 woman representatives. The election attracted 83,597 candidates. While little is known about the six candidates and how their conducted their campaigns, Museveni and Bobi Wine 43 the two front-runners. Prominent opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who has run against Museveni four times, was not able to take part in this year's presidential race following his abduction while in Kenya by Ugandan military who later charged him with treason charges. Dr Besigye's detention raised questions and concerns about whether major opposition figures have had equal opportunity to contest the presidency with a section of political pundits faulting the rest of the presidential contenders for failing to demand for his release. Bobi Wine and his supporters decried what they termed as police brutality and weaponisation of State agencies to stop him from conducting campaigns. Human Rights lobby groups such as Amnesty International and The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) recorded incidents where Bobi Wine's supporters were arrested and other teargassed by the police. According to Amnesty International, in October 2025, ten members of Bobi Wine's party -National Unity Platform- were arrested in northern Uganda, with at least another 95 members charged with minor offences in November 2025. On December 6, 2025 Bobi Wine and several of his supporters and staff were attacked and beaten by security forces while campaigning in Gulu. "Government used tear gas, pepper spray, beatings and other acts of violence. In a New Year's Eve address, President Museveni recommended that the security forces use more tear gas to break up crowds of what he called "the criminal opposition" and defended the dispersal of Bobi Wine supporters with tear gas, saying that "it doesn't kill. It is much better than using live bullets." "The authorities have launched a brutal campaign of repression against the opposition and its supporters, making it extremely difficult for them to exercise their rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly,"said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East and Southern Africa The violence and chaos witnessed in this year's election mirrored what happened in the 2021 presidential election where Museveni garnered 58 per cent against Bobi Wine's 34 per cent while the other eight candidates shared the other votes cast.

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