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Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has accused the opposition of cheating and manipulating the ongoing presidential election, alleging irregularities linked to the use and failure of voting machines across parts of the country.
Speaking during the vote, Museveni claimed that his camp discovered evidence of manipulation only after the alleged acts had taken place, limiting their ability to challenge them in real time.
“If we had known the manipulation in time, we would have challenged it. But we came to know about it later. We came to know about it post mortem,” the president said.
Museveni suggested that the alleged irregularities may be part of a broader pattern, adding that investigations were ongoing to determine the extent and cause of the issues observed.
“But this could be one manipulation. We are going to study more. Like this one here, we are going to find out why and what was the problem,” he said.
The president also addressed widespread reports of malfunctioning voting machines, which prompted the Electoral Commission to approve a switch to manual voting in some areas. According to Museveni, the decision was taken to avoid disenfranchising voters who had waited for hours at polling stations.
“So, when we started checking by 8, 9, people started ringing me. The machines are working in a few places; in other places, they are not working,” he said.
“So, the Electoral Commission proposed, and I had to support it because people have gathered from morning, from 7, that will vote manually, because it was not correct for people to just go home,” Museveni added.
Despite the technical setbacks, the president insisted that the biometric machines were functional and accused the opposition of exploiting weaknesses in the system during previous elections.
“But the machine works. Last time, they got 2.7 million votes by cheating. But this time we are also very alert,” he said.
Museveni further dismissed suggestions that the concerns were speculative, insisting that safeguards were in place to monitor the process despite the reported failures.
“Although the machines have not worked well, we have got other measures which we are following up. So this is not a rumour,” he said.
The allegations come with heightened political tension as Ugandans vote in a closely watched presidential election, with opposition parties already raising concerns about the credibility of the process.
