KAMPALA, Uganda
Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine), leader of Uganda’s main opposition party, said troops raided its headquarters on Monday as staff tried to prepare a legal challenge to President Yoweri Museveni’s declared victory in an election last week.
Wine, himself under house arrest, said party leaders were now on
the run. “Our party office has been raided by the military and been cordoned
off,” Wine told Reuters. “Everybody is being pursued.”
Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said the National Unity
Platform (NUP) office had been cordoned off for security reasons, but he gave
no more details and did not say if troops had entered the premises.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said later on
Twitter that the U.S. ambassador to Uganda was sent away from his gate after
she tried to visit him. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy on
the planned visit.
The electoral commission declared incumbent Museveni the winner
of the Jan. 14 election on Saturday, triggering protests in two areas. Wine, a
former pop star-turned-legislator, came second and accused Museveni of winning
by fraud.
In the election, where voters were also choosing members of
parliament, Wine’s NUP won 61 seats. Five other opposition parties won 48
seats, giving opposition lawmakers in the next House 109 in total, a government
statement said on Monday. The ruling party won 316 seats.
Wine had appealed to youth to vote out Museveni, a 76-year-old
in power since 1986. Wine’s songs have frequently criticised Museveni for
corruption and nepotism, accusations he denies.
Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-ruling leaders, has dismissed
the allegations of fraud and said the election may turn out to be the “most
cheating-free” in Ugandan history.
The government wanted to disrupt documentation of voting fraud,
NUP spokesman Joel Ssenyonyi said.
“They don’t want work to continue at our offices because they
know that we are putting together evidence to show the world how much of a
fraudster Museveni is.”
The campaign and election were marked by a deadly crackdown by
security forces on opposition supporters and an internet shutdown. In one week
of protests in November, at least 54 people died.
The government said opposition members and their supporters had
been breaking public order laws and COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings. On
Monday the government started to partially restore internet access.
The United States and Britain have called for investigations
into reports of fraud and other election issues.
Wine called for the military to release him from house arrest,
saying his home was not a legally recognised detention centre. He accused
soldiers of assaulting his wife when she went into their garden.
“The soldiers were pulling her by the breasts,” he said, adding
that the incident was filmed on video and she would share it when social media
services were restored.
Military spokeswoman Brigadier Flavia Byekwaso said she was unaware of the incident.
The law gives petitioners 20 days after results are declared to
challenge them in the Supreme Court. Wine said he wanted to meet with his party
to decide on a strategy that could include peaceful protests.
But the military has surrounded Wine’s home in Kampala since
Thursday, saying it is for his own safety.
Wine’s lawyers were denied access on Monday. One legislator for
Wine’s party said he was beaten up by security forces when he tried to enter
this weekend.
The NUP’s Ssenyonyi said such attacks, including on the party’s
polling agents, were being carried out to cripple the court challenge.
At least 110 polling agents from Wine’s party have been arrested
since the eve of the election. Some 223 suspects have been arrested during the
election on offences that include assault, intimidation and voter bribery,
police said. - Reuters
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