Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has been re-elected to a seventh term, the Electoral Commission has announced.
Museveni, 81, won with 71.65 percent of the vote, the commission said on Saturday.
The Electoral Commission on Saturday (January 17) has declared President Yoweri Museveni of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) the winner of the 2026 presidential election after securing 7,946,772 votes.
Shortly after 4pm, EC chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama delivered the final results at the National Tally Centre (EC head office premises) in Lubowa, Lweza.
He defeated his main challenger, 43-year-old Bobi Wine, who received 24.72 percent of the vote, according to the official results.
Museveni’s widely expected victory comes after an election campaign that the United Nations said was marred by “widespread repression and intimidation”, including a crackdown on opposition rallies.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has been in power since 1986 and he is the longest serving president of Uganda.
Many Ugandans still praise the longtime leader as the man who ended Uganda’s post-independence chaos and oversaw rapid economic growth in the country.
“I’m really very happy to see he’s won,” said Isaac Kamba, a 37-year-old teacher at a pro-government rally in a Kampala cricket ground.
“The victory comes because of his hard work, dedication and commitment to the people of Uganda,” he told AFP.
It is the first time in three decades that Museveni has won with over 70% of the vote, having last done so in the 1996 election when he secured 74.33% of the vote in a three-way race that also featured Paul Ssemogerere and Kibirige Mayanja.
That 1996 presidential election was the first following the adoption of the 1995 constitution and the three candidates ran as independents due to a ban on political party activities at the time.
Fast-forward to 2026 and long since the introduction of multi-party elections in Uganda, Museveni has once again come out on top in an election that featured a total of eight presidential candidates — all belonging to a political party.
Four of the contestants have been first-time presidential candidates.
Kyagulanyi Contests the Results
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s opponent, a youthful Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, condemned what he called “fake results” and alleged that election irregularities marred the counting of the ballots.
Wine also alleged that he fled his home to escape arrest by security forces who raided his house on Friday, with his political party claiming earlier that he had been taken from his home in an army helicopter.
“Last night was very difficult at our home … The military and the police raided us. They switched off power and cut off some of our CCTV cameras,” Wine said in a post on X.
