While Ugandans are called to the polls this Thursday as part of the presidential and legislative elections, the opposition denounces maneuvers by President Museveni aimed at keeping him in power. The man who has led the country since 1986 intends to run for a 7th term.
The former guerrilla fighter is confronted with a strong opponent, singer turned politician, Bobi Wine, 43, presents himself as the "ghetto president" in reference to its popularity in the slums of Kampala.
In many areas, voting began with a significant delay, several hours after polling stations were scheduled to open. The cause is malfunctions on the biometric machines used to verify the identity of voters. Another concern put forward is the non-delivery of ballot boxes in several districts of Kampala and in the neighboring town of Jinja. At a polling station in suburban Kampala, voting began four hours late after officials switched to manual verification.
"They are trying to steal the vote", said Respy, a woman in her 20s. "They are trying to tire us out so we can go home".
David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary general of the opposition platform National Unity Platform, said he had traveled around the capital and found that"no vote took place"in most places.
"Everything they do is a sham and it’s deliberate", he told AFP.
"On the other hand, voting began as planned near the Summit View military barracks in Kampala", he added. An AFP journalist also saw a polling station open at the scheduled time next to a military housing area.
"There are technical problems, but this does not concern all polling stations", said Faruk Kirunda, spokesperson for the president, adding that affected areas were switching to manual verification "and that people were now allowed to vote".
Some attributed the problems to Tuesday's government shutdown.
The government said the internet shutdown was necessary to prevent the spread of "fake news" and "incitement to violence", but the United Nations called this measure "deeply worrying".
Since the start of the campaign, journalists say they have been harassed and Human Rights Watch this week denounced the suspension of 10 NGOs, including election observers, saying the opposition had been the victim of a "brutal repression".
A risk of violence hangs over these elections
Just like in 2021, during the presidential election, hundreds of Bobi Wine supporters were arrested in the run-up to the January 15, 2026 vote. The main opposition candidate wore a bulletproof vest during rallies, calling the election "war" and Museveni of "military dictator".
"We are very aware that they plan to rig elections, brutalize people, kill people, and they don't want the rest of the world to see it", Wine told AFP on the eve of election day.
The candidate promised to organize demonstrations if the vote was rigged.
The other major opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, who has run four times against Museveni, was kidnapped in Kenya in 2024 and brought back before a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is still ongoing.
Many Ugandans continue to support Museveni and see him as the man who ended the chaos that followed the country's independence and oversaw rapid economic growth, despite an endless series of massive corruption scandals.
