President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni has claimed that Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine and his National Unity Platform (NUP) massively cheated him in Buganda during the January 14 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Although Museveni won the poll with 58 per cent of the just over 10 million votes cast, he and his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party performed poorly in Bobi Wine’s home Buganda subregion.
Here, Bobi Wine beat Museveni with huge margins, and his NUP party won most parliamentary seats to become the main opposition political group in Parliament.
Bobi Wine has claimed he won the vote with 54 per cent — but has given no evidence to prove his allegations.
Yet Museveni has also claimed Bobi Wine and NUP rigged him out.
The 76-year-old president said he had kept quiet regarding rigging allegations since the matter was in court.
But now that Bobi Wine has formally withdrawn his petition from the Supreme Court, he could freely speak about the matter.
“On the contrary, it’s the opposition, especially this Kyagulanyi group which cheated massively, especially in Kampala and a little bit in eastern Uganda, in Busoga,” claimed Museveni during his March 14 night address.
“Some [NUP people] started ballot stuffing as early as 5am.”
The president blamed the ballot stuffing by NUP on the corrupt NRM officials who only thought of stealing money without doing anything.
Museveni said his party’s vote protection teams had kept quiet amidst Bobi Wine’s NUP rigging acts.
He also complained of ‘vicious intimidation’ by Bobi Wine’s NUP supporters against NRM members, still in Buganda and Busoga.