Ugandans awaited the results of a tense presidential election Saturday as authorities put the main opposition candidate under house arrest in the capital and two people died in violence at his party’s campaign office.
The outcome will determine the fate of incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, who was been in power for three decades.
His closest competitor, opposition leader Kizza Besigye, 59, was put under “preventative arrest” at his home in Kampala on Friday, along with six officials from his party, police said.
Authorities detained the officials because they planned to announce unauthorized results tallied by the opposition, police spokesman Patrick Onyango said.
Under law, only election officials may announce results, he said.
The offices of the opposition party, where two people died following violence, had been besieged by police and military forces, the Red Cross said.
Incumbent leading in the polls
Museveni, 71, is seeking a fifth term. And experts say it’s unlikely he will be unseated.
The incumbent has been in office since his rebel group seized power in 1986. In 2005, the constitution underwent changes to allow him to extend his term.
As he tries to maintain his grip on power, experts emphasized the difficulty of unseating incumbents on the African continent.
Provincial results showed him with 61% of the vote compared with Besigye, who had 35%.
“A re-election for Museveni would signal the persistent advantages incumbents have in controlling the political process, making it very difficult for opposition parties or candidates to compete with national structures, finance and support from partisan government institutions,” said Magnus Taylor, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Besigye, 59, is one of eight candidates running for President this year. He is also Museveni’s former doctor and served as a minister in his Cabinet.
This is not his first attempt to unseat his former boss. He lost presidential bids in 2001, 2006 and 2011.