The leader of Uganda’s main opposition party, Bobi Wine, has intimated that the military raided his party’s headquarters as staff tried to prepare a legal challenge to President Yoweri Museveni’s declared victory in last week’s election.
Wine, who is under house arrest himself, added that party leaders are now on the run.
“Our party office has been raided by the military and been cordoned off,” Wine said. “Everybody is being pursued.”
Police spokesman Patrick Onyango however said the National Unity Platform (NUP) office had been cordoned off for security reasons, but gave no more details and did not say if the troops had entered the premises.
Bobi Wine of the NUP came second when the Electoral Commission announced the results of the January 14 election and has accused his rival of winning by fraud.
In the election, where voters were also choosing members of parliament, NUP won 61 seats. Five other opposition parties won 48 seats, giving opposition lawmakers in the next House 109 seats in total, a government statement said. The ruling party won 316 seats.
President 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 Uganda’s 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,” he added.
The campaign and election were marked by a deadly crackdown by security forces on opposition supporters and an internet shutdown. During 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.
Wine has called for the military to release him from house arrest, saying his home was not a legally recognised detention centre. He also 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.
The Constitution 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, he said.
But the military has surrounded Wine’s home in Kampala since the day of the election, saying it is for his own safety.
His lawyers have also been denied access to him. One legislator for Wine’s party claimed he was beaten up by security forces when he tried to enter this weekend.
“In the scuffle, he got hurt,” military spokeswoman, Brig. Flavia Byekwaso told a news conference.
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.
Brig. Byekwaso said the government was not targeting the party’s agents and that those arrested were planning “chaos”.
The government has started to partially restore internet access, which had been fully blocked during the vote. However, social media platforms remain blocked and are only accessible using Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
The United States and Britain have called for investigations into reports of fraud and other election issues.
