Police deny Bobi Wine abduction claims as Yoweri Museveni heads for victory

[ad_1] Anita Nkonge, BBC Africa and

Lucy Fleming

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/65d0/live/387420e0-f385-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Getty Images Bobi Wine in a black shirt flanked by a police officer and his wife in a blue shawl on voting day." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Pictures Bobi Wine, President Museveni's essential rival, has questioned the credibility of the outcomes

Police in Uganda have denied allegations that presidential candidate Bobi Wine was kidnapped on Friday night as vote counting continues within the East African nation amid an web blackout.

Wine's occasion mentioned a helicopter landed within the grounds of his home within the capital, Kampala, and forcibly took him to an unknown location.

Initially Wine's son, Solomon Kampala, mentioned each his mother and father had been seized, however later claimed his father "escaped" and his mom was nonetheless underneath home arrest, resulting in confusion over the whereabouts of the opposition chief.

The most recent electoral figures from Thursday's vote give Museveni 72% of the vote, with Wine on 24%, based mostly on returns from 94% of polling stations.

Talking at a press convention on Saturday morning, police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke mentioned the Nationwide Unity Platform (NUP) occasion chief was nonetheless in his residence in Kampala and that it was Wine's members of the family who had been spreading "unfaithful" and "unfounded" claims.

He mentioned Wine's actions had been restricted as a result of his residence was an space of "safety curiosity".

"We now have managed entry to areas that are safety hotspots," Uganda's Day by day Monitor paper quoted him as saying.

"We can not enable folks to make use of some locations to assemble and trigger chaos. All our actions are supposed to stop anyone from creating violence or destabilising our safety," he mentioned.

On Friday, Wine had informed his supporters to disregard the "pretend outcomes" which were introduced, saying the authorities have been "stealing the vote". He didn't present any proof to again up his declare and the authorities haven't responded to his allegations.

Wine's son Solomon Kampala, who has been posting updates on social media, admitted in a single day he was getting conflicting experiences in regards to the safety state of affairs at his mother and father' residence.

"Amidst the raid my father was capable of escape, my mom remains to be at present underneath [house] arrest, nonetheless no one is allowed to enter the home," he posted on X on Saturday morning.

Issue accessing the web within the nation has made it exhausting for folks to confirm info.

Information that at the very least seven opposition supporters had been killed in disputed circumstances in Butambala, about 55km (35 miles) south-west of the capital, on Thursday solely emerged in a while Friday.

The US embassy then issued an alert to its residents due to experiences the safety forces had been "utilizing tear fuel and firing into the air to disperse gatherings".

Throughout Thursday's vote, voting was delayed by as much as 4 hours in lots of polling stations across the nation as poll packing containers had been gradual to reach and biometric machines, used to confirm voters' id, didn't work correctly.

Some have linked the issues to the community outage.

Electoral chief Simon Byabakama mentioned on Friday that the vote counting had not been affected by the web blackout and the ultimate outcomes could be out earlier than 17:00 native time (14:00 GMT] on Saturday.

Thursday's election adopted an usually violent marketing campaign, with President Museveni, 81, searching for a seventh time period in workplace. He first took energy as a insurgent chief in 1986.

Wine, a 43-year-old pop star-turned-politician, who says he represents the youth in a rustic the place many of the inhabitants is aged underneath 30, has promised to sort out corruption and impose sweeping reforms, whereas Museveni argues he's the only guarantor of stability and progress in Uganda.

Though there are six different candidates, the presidential ballot is a two-horse race between Museveni and Wine.

The marketing campaign interval was marred by the disruption of opposition actions - safety forces have been accused of assaulting and detaining Wine's supporters.

Rusoke, the police spokesperson, dismissed these complaints, accusing opposition supporters of being disruptive.

Web entry was suspended on Tuesday, with Uganda's Communications Fee saying the blackout was vital to stop misinformation, fraud and the incitement of violence - a transfer condemned by the UN human rights workplace as "deeply worrying".

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/912d/live/d97628c0-f2b4-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="BBC election graphics" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> <img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News Africa" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Pictures/BBC [ad_2] Source link