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Presidential in Uganda: Bobi Wine appeals to the Supreme Court

The young 38-year-old deputy and former ragga singer, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, had fifteen days after the declaration of the results by the electoral commission to challenge them in court. It is now done. Bobi Wine officially seized justice on Monday 1is February to demand “the annulment” of the results of the presidential election in Uganda, marred according to him by frauds which ensured the re-election of outgoing president Yoweri Museveni. “We want the election annulled, we don’t want it [Museveni] take part in future elections, ”said Medard Sseggona, one of Bobi Wine’s councils, filing an appeal with the Supreme Court of this East African country. The opponent and his relatives are playing big. The results were reported on January 16, which means the fifteen-day deadline has in principle expired since Sunday. But the chief justice gave the protesters an extra day. This will be the fourth time that the election of President Museveni will be challenged in court.

Bobi Wine in a race against time

Yoweri Museveni, a 76-year-old former guerrilla in power since 1986, won the January 14 presidential election with 58.6% of the vote. But Bobi Wine immediately denounced the election as a “farce”, with official results giving him 34.8% of the vote. The Ugandan armed forces then surrounded the house of the opponent at the head of the National Unity Platform (NUP) for several days before a court ruling qualifying the assignment as “illegal” required their departure. . The former artist has called on his supporters to reject the re-election of the ex-guerrilla, in power for thirty-five years, but he did not ask them to demonstrate. His party had promised to use all legal means to overturn the ballot. Before him, other candidates have already tried in the past to challenge President Museveni’s electoral victories in court. The authoritarian leader has been systematically elected in every poll in which he has participated since 1996, almost every time with suspicion of fraud.

Ugandan democracy at stake

This time Bobi Wine claims to have ample evidence of irregularities, showing in particular ballot stuffing, intimidation tactics with voters and manipulation of the results in certain polling stations. Opposite, the power camp, and in particular Yoweri Museveni, affirms that this election was the most transparent that the country has ever known since its independence in 1962. However, the electoral campaign was marked by violence which made dozens deaths and by the crackdown on opposition candidates, prevented from organizing rallies in the name of the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic. In the days leading up to and following the election, Internet access was interrupted and social networks suspended. The Supreme Court now has forty-five days to rule on the opponent’s appeal.


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