Uganda Election: Veteran Leader Yoweri Museveni Leads in Presidential Vote

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers, took a commanding lead in the nation’s presidential election, according to preliminary results.

With ballots tallied from almost 40% of polling stations, Museveni garnered 63% support , and his main rival -- pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine -- 29%, the Electoral Commission of Uganda said on state television Friday. The nation has 18.1 million registered voters out of a population of about 45 million.

Final results are expected to be announced over the weekend.

Wine said in a Twitter posting on Friday that members of the military had jumped over the fence of his home, which was now under siege. He has complained of repeated intimidation by the authorities during the campaign.

Wine’s National Unity Platform party disputed the preliminary results. The party is keeping its own tally based on announcements made at polling stations around the country, spokesman Joel Ssenyonyi said.

“Let him show the country in what manner and what form the results are rigged,” the electoral body’s chairman, Simon Byabakama, told reporters in the capital, Kampala.

Museveni, 76, in power since 1986, is expected to win the election, partly because of the support he still enjoys in rural areas and his influence within the state.

At least 54 people died after protests erupted in November following the arrest of Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi. Police and soldiers have used armored personnel carriers to patrol the capital in operations they said were aimed at thwarting election-related violence.

Ugandans also had to contend with an internet shutdown after authorities directed telecommunications operators to switch it off. That and the failure of the electoral body to accredit observers from from diplomatic mission could put the integrity of the Jan. 14 vote into question.

Uganda is Africa’s biggest-coffee exporter and plans to start producing oil by 2024.

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