![\"Incumbent](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c1_5927263.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMuseveni looking to extend four-decade rule as residents fear post-poll unrest<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986 and is determined to stay in power. (Photo: AFP) <\/p>\n
KAMPALA – Uganda was on edge as it headed for elections on Thursday, with President Yoweri Museveni expected to extend his 40-year rule amid an internet shutdown and a police crackdown on the opposition.<\/p>\n
The local Daily Monitor newspaper ran a full-page spread on how to \u201celection-proof your home\u201d, advising citizens to reinforce doors and windows and designate a safe-room in case of unrest.<\/p>\n
It is a familiar feeling for Ugandans after four decades of rule by Museveni, 81, a former bush fighter steeped in the ideology of revolutionary violence, whose tenure has been marked by accusations of rampant security force abuses against his opponents.<\/p>\n
He has faced a concerted challenge from singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43, who styles himself the \u201cghetto president\u201d, after his stronghold in a slum where he grew up in the capital, Kampala.<\/p>\n
As with his 2021 campaign, hundreds of Wine\u2019s supporters have been arrested in the run-up to the vote. He has taken to wearing a flak jacket at rallies, describing the election as a \u201cwar\u201d and Museveni as a \u201cmilitary dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very aware that they are planning to rig the election, to brutalise people, to kill people, and they don\u2019t want the rest of the world to see,\u201d Wine told AFP.<\/p>\n
Despite repeated promises that it would not do so, the government shut down the internet on Tuesday for an indefinite period to prevent the spread of \u201cmisinformation\u201d and \u201cincitement to violence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The United Nations called the shutdown \u201cdeeply worrying\u201d. Wine has vowed protests if the vote is rigged.<\/p>\n
The other major opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, who ran four times against Museveni, was abducted in Kenya in 2024 and brought back to a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is ongoing.<\/p>\n
His wife, UNAIDS director Winnie Byanyima, said Uganda has only a \u201cthin veneer\u201d of democracy, with a \u201ctotal capture of state institutions\u201d by the president.<\/p>\n
\u2018I will crush them\u2019<\/p>\n
Western countries have often given Museveni leeway, after he swallowed their demands for neoliberal reforms in the 1980s and made himself a useful partner in the US-led \u201cwar on terror\u201d in the 2000s, especially through troop contributions to Somalia.<\/p>\n
Many Ugandans still praise him as the man who ended the country\u2019s post-independence chaos and oversaw rapid economic growth, even if much was lost to a relentless string of massive corruption scandals.<\/p>\n
\u201cForty years doesn\u2019t even matter, we need even more,\u201d said one supporter, Banura Oliver, 41, on her way to Museveni\u2019s final rally in Kampala.<\/p>\n
The president struck a forceful tone, saying: \u201cGo and vote. Anybody who wants to interfere with your freedom, I will crush them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many in Kampala were nervous as security forces beefed up their presence for election day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not talk about elections. You can ask anything but not that,\u201d said an accountant in his thirties, who did not give his name.<\/p>\n
The police warned the vote was \u201cnot a justification for criminal acts\u201d and has deployed newly hired \u201cspecial constables\u201d to enforce order.<\/p>\n
Journalists were harassed and blocked from attending Museveni\u2019s rally.<\/p>\n
Reporters Without Borders said local journalist Ssematimba Bwegiire lost consciousness after being electrocuted and pepper-sprayed by a security officer at a Wine rally.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch has denounced the suspension of 10 NGOs, including election-monitoring organisations, and said the opposition had faced \u201cbrutal repression\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Museveni looking to extend four-decade rule as residents fear post-poll unrest Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni has ruled Uganda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[1202,153],"class_list":{"0":"post-24312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uganda","8":"tag-museveni","9":"tag-uganda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}