Posters of Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, the pop star-turned-opposition leader
Credit: SUMY SADURNI /AFP
Ugandans head to the polls on Thursday in a tense election marked by a growing campaign of violence, amid news that the private security company that was guarding opposition leader Bobi Wine’s home in Kampala has been disarmed and ordered to withdraw.
Most see President Yoweri Museveni’s return to office for a sixth term as a foregone conclusion. However, the last eight weeks have seen security forces break up opposition rallies with tear gas and rubber bullets, as well as beat up and arrest hundreds of Mr Wine’s supporters and campaign staff.
Over 18 million voters are registered for the general election despite a surging coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, they will choose between Mr Museveni, 76, who has run the country with an iron first for 35 years, and opposition frontrunner Mr Wine, a 38-year-old pop star-turned-politician known for his charisma and anti-establishment platform.
Bobi Wine speaks during the funeral of his driver Elijah Mukiibi, who he claims was killed by security forces
Credit: BAZ RATNER /REUTERS
Mr Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, has become an unexpectedly strong challenger by mobilising young people in a country where 80 per cent of citizens are under 35 and two-thirds are unemployed.
"General Museveni […] is a representation of history, I’m a representation of the future and we demand the right to live our own lives, to make our own mistakes, to write our own story," Mr Wine told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview on Saturday.
Authorities have responded with a level of violence rarely seen in election campaigns.
Mr Wine has been arrested countless times and his rallies broken up on account of flouting a ban on gatherings to stop the spread of Covid-19.
His security guard was run over and killed by a military vehicle last month, and he has said he sent his children abroad over fears for their safety. He now campaigns in a helmet and flak jacket.
On Wednesday, Mr Wine said that the private security company guarding his house for the last 12 years had suddenly been removed.
"Their supervisors showed up unannounced at midnight, disarmed my guard and said they had instructions to immediately withdraw my security," he said on Twitter.
Separately, US ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown said the American electoral observation mission would be cancelled after most of its accreditation requests were denied by authorities.
She added that without observers from other diplomatic missions and local civil society, Thursday’s poll would lack "accountability, transparency and confidence."
Ugandan military forces and police patrol in the capital Kampala ahead of the elections
Credit: STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Last week the UN said it was worried that Covid-19 measures "are being used as a ground to restrict public freedoms and political participation" and that "the discriminatory enforcement of such restrictions has led to violence, arbitrary arrests and detention, and, in some instances, reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces."
Adding to the tense atmosphere, the Ugandan government has also switched off all social media platforms ahead of the poll after Facebook closed fake and duplicate accounts linked to officials accused of distorting public discourse.
The dynamics driving Uganda’s tense election echo a generational divide in countries led by aging strongmen across Africa and beyond. While disaffected youths yearn for political change and better economic opportunities, older voters value perceived stability and argue the benefits of the status quo.
The East African nation is an important Western ally in a region which has often been engulfed in wars, but the country has never seen a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.
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