Main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) has blasted President Yoweri Museveni for alleging that the party rigged the 2021 presidential election by one million votes.
Speaking at a memorial lecture in honor former internal affairs minister Gen Aronda Nyakairima in Kampala on September 12, 2024, Museveni claimed he had landed concrete evidence that Bobi Wine’s NUP rigged by over one million votes.
Official results by Justice Simon Byabakama’s Electoral Commission indicated that Museveni got 5.85 million votes or 58.64 per cent of the total valid votes cast. Bobi Wine, making his debut in presidential elections, managed 3.48 million votes or 34.83 per cent.
“I have now got all the evidence that in the last election, NUP cheated by one million votes. I have the facts. NUP can take me to court and say ‘Museveni has falsely accused them’,” said Museveni.
Museveni’s claims – if proven true – could mean that Bobi Wine could have garnered only 2.4 million votes.
But top NUP officials have fired back for trying to sanitize his alleged role in the violence and claims of rigging that characterized the 2021 poll.
NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya said: “This is laughable. This is shameless. It is really unbelievable that Gen Museveni can accuse the National Unity Platform of rigging elections when he knows very well that he engaged in massive election rigging.”
Joel Ssenyonyi, the party spokesperson, argued that the president had been shocked by their performance and could not believe that they had managed to garner as many votes on their first attempt despite the circumstances, including the role of state security agencies.
“Maybe he now also acknowledges what we have been saying that he never organizes a free and fair election because he is the one in charge,” he said.
This is not the first time Museveni has alleged that Bobi Wine’s NUP engaged in rigging in the 2021 elections. He has previously said that his votes were stolen, especially in Buganda where Bobi Wine performed so well. (See Details Here and There).
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