President Yoweri Museveni has extended his 40-year reign over Uganda by another five years.
A military helicopter roared above the National Tally Centre marquee as the chairman of the electoral commission announced a landslide victory for the 81-year-old incumbent with 71.65% of the vote.
Members of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party cheered and praised God as their long-time leader remained in power.
“Was this a free and fair election?” I asked Prime Minister Robinah Nabanjja.
“It was, it was,” she replied quickly.
So why have the military and police been deployed to the streets for weeks?
“You are aware that our opponents were promising havoc, to burn the city, and I believe it is the work of security agents to keep law and order,” she said.
There is no doubt she is referring to the supporters of the main opposition leader, Bobi Wine, who have been taking to the streets in the face of a violent state crackdown.
Police say that at least seven people have been killed in central Uganda as votes were tallied and disputed on Friday.
“The votes that have been stolen are votes of the people of Uganda,” Bobi Wine’s lawyer Benjamin Katana told me outside the National Tally Centre marquee.
Katana is the only associate of Bobi Wine that has been permitted to witness the official results alongside dignitaries, diplomats and religious leaders.
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He refused to certify the results and walked out shortly after Bobi Wine’s 24.72% was declared – a drop from 34.8% of the vote count he was officially attributed in 2021.
“This electoral process has been reduced to a fraudulent affair, that is aimed at short-changing the people of Uganda and subverting their will,” said Katana.
“Our position has been that the constitution of Uganda, particularly article 29, gives the people of Uganda the right to demonstrate and protest against any unfairness,” he added, echoing Wine’s call for his supporters to take to the streets and reject the election.
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The streets were calm as we left the tally centre and drove through central Kampala.
The crowds gathering in front of neighbourhood television screens were not watching the election results but the Premier League.
They are gripped by the Manchester derby game as the internet is still shut down by the state – a score of 2-0 that is more suspenseful than the election results.
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“This [is] a foregone conclusion,” Dr Livingstone Sewanya, the executive director of the Human Rights Initiative, told us in the National Tally Centre before the electoral commission declared the winner of the presidential race.
“Freedom of expression, association and assembly are at their lowest. You cannot organise now. If you do, you are subversive. You cannot associate freely; if you do, you are anti-establishment.
“So, this is a real threat and a serious issue.”
