KAMPALA, Uganda — Longtime Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni on Saturday was declared the winner of the country’s disputed presidential election, but his main rival rejected the results as fraudulent and called for an independent audit of the count.
Museveni got more than 60 percent of the votes, and his nearest rival, Kizza Besigye, got 35 percent, according to final results announced by the election commission.
Besigye was under house arrest as Museveni was declared the winner, with heavily armed police standing guard near his residence on the outskirts of the capital, Kampala.
In an interview with The Associated Press at his home, Besigye said he rejects the results.
“We knew, right from the beginning, the electoral commission that was organizing and managing these elections was a partisan, incompetent and discredited body as from the previous elections,” Besigye said. “We knew that the military and security organizations were going to be engaged in a partisan and unfair way like they did in the past.”
Besigye urged the international community to reject the official tally.
The capital was calm after the announcement of results amid a heavy security presence.
Museveni’s ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, urged “all candidates to respect the will of the people and the authority of the electoral commission and accept the result. We ask all Ugandans to remain calm and peaceful and not to engage in any public disruptions.”
Thursday’s voting was marred by lengthy delays in the delivery of polling materials, some incidents of violence and a government shutdown of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which remained inaccessible Saturday.
The election was marked by an “intimidating atmosphere, which was mainly created by state actors,” said the European Union observer mission.
