The veteran Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, held a commanding lead in early presidential election results announced on Friday, as conflicting accounts emerged of violence after the vote.
Museveni, who is 81 and has ruled Uganda since seizing power in 1986, is seeking a decisive victory after a campaign marred by violence at opposition rallies.
Preliminary results from Thursday’s election, announced by the electoral commission, showed Museveni with 76.25% of the vote based on tallies from nearly half of polling stations.
His main challenger, the popular singer Bobi Wine, trailed with 19.85%, with the remaining votes split among six other candidates.
After casting his ballot, Museveni had told reporters that he expected to win with 80% of the vote “if there’s no cheating”.
Wine alleged mass fraud during the election, which was held under an internet blackout that authorities said was needed to prevent “misinformation”, and called on supporters to protest.
The UN human rights office said last week the election was being held in an environment of “widespread repression and intimidation”, while recent political violence in neighbouring Tanzania and Kenya had heightened fears about unrest in Uganda.
There were no reports of protests during voting hours, but violence broke out overnight in the town of Butambala, about 35 miles (55km) south-west of the capital, Kampala.
Agather Atuhaire, a prominent human rights activist, said soldiers and police had killed at least 10 opposition supporters who had gathered at the house of the parliamentarian Muwanga Kivumbi to follow early results.
Citing an account from Kivumbi’s wife, the rights activist Zahara Nampewo, Atuhaire said soldiers and police fired teargas and then live bullets at people sheltering inside Kivumbi’s compound.
Reuters was not able to reach Nampewo, who Atuhaire said was too shaken to speak to the media.
Lydia Tumushabe, a police spokesperson, disputed that account. She said opposition “goons” organised by Kivumbi and carrying machetes, axes and boxes of matches had attacked a police station. She said the police had fired in self-defence and that there were fatalities and injuries without specifying numbers.
Kivumbi could not be reached for comment, and Reuters was not immediately able to verify the circumstances surrounding the violence.
Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party wrote on X late on Thursday that the military and police had surrounded Wine’s home in Kampala, “[in effect] placing him under house arrest”.
A police spokesperson, Kituuma Rusoke, told Reuters he was not aware of Wine being placed under house arrest.
Security forces confined Wine to his home for days after2021 election, in which he was credited with 35% of the vote. The US said that poll was neither free nor fair, a charge rejected by Ugandan authorities.
During the campaign, Wine’s rallies were disrupted repeatedly by security forces firing teargas and bullets. At least one person was killed and hundreds of opposition supporters were arrested.
The government defended those actions as a response to lawless behaviour by opposition supporters.