The “Oracle of Rwakitura” is on the verge of extending his four-decade rule into a fifth, as early provisional results from Uganda’s general election show Yoweri Kaguta Museveni establishing an insurmountable lead.
According to live updates broadcast by local media including NBS Television, the 81-year-old veteran leader has secured 70.52% of the votes tallied so far—representing a staggering 5,699,342 ballots.
The figures, released at 11:00 am on Friday, January 16, 2026, suggest that Museveni is “cruising” toward a seventh term, leaving his rivals trailing in his wake.
Preliminary figures have highlighted a significant gulf between the incumbent and his main challenger, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine.
Despite the pop star-turned-politician’s massive appeal among the youth, the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader currently sits at 25.01%, with 2,021,248 votes.
For Bobi Wine, the “People Power” movement appears to have hit a wall of state machinery and incumbency.
The election has been far from smooth, however. For the third day running, Uganda remains under a total internet shutdown, a move authorities defended as a “precautionary measure” to prevent misinformation and incitement.
Critics and international observers have slammed the blackout as a “digital iron curtain” that has shielded the counting process from transparency.
The shutdown has crippled communication, making it nearly impossible for opposition agents to verify results in real-time or share evidence of the irregularities they claim are rampant.
From his home in Magere, which remains surrounded by security forces, Bobi Wine issued a defiant rejected of the early tallies.
In a series of social media posts—shared via satellite and relayed to the outside world—he described the process as an “insult to democracy.”
“Massive ballot stuffing reported everywhere. The regime military and police are directly involved in repressing our agents at polling stations. This is an illegitimate outcome, ” he claimed.
As the Electoral Commission prepares to announce the final verdict by Saturday evening, the atmosphere in Kampala remains tense but quiet.
With the military deployed at every major intersection, the path for Museveni’s seventh term seems clear—even as his opponents vow that they will not let the “dust” settle quietly.
