By Hassan Wekesa - Editor
Uganda, 16 January 2026 - Uganda's incumbent President Yoweri Museveni was on Friday leading with 76.25% his main challenger Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine at 19.85%, the electoral commission said in a morning briefing.
The electoral commission is led by the chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama.
With votes from 45% of polling stations counted, Museveni,81, was leading with 3.9 million votes against Bobi Wine's 1.3 million votes.
On Thursday, Ugandans headed to the polls to elect their next president, 353 Constituency Members of Parliament (MPs) and 142 women representatives--one per local district.
There were massive delays and failures of voter identification kits.
Museveni who has ruled Uganda since 1986 acknowledged the issue and was himself a victim when the kits failed to identify him despite nunerous attempts.
“I am a good role model and Ugandans from all over, including in the diaspora saw what happened. We are going to investigate why the kits failed, but they worked with face recognition,” Museveni said on Thursday after he had cast his vote.
“The electoral commission has allowed the use of manual register and I fully support them. There is no reason why a voter would show up and then be denied the chance to vote,” the incumbent said.
Meanwhile, Bobi Wine exuded confidence that he would emerge victorious despite intensified crackdowns on leaders and supporters of his National Unity Platform (NUP).
“We are here. I don't feel safe neither is my spouse safe. But our safety is not above the safety of citizens. We want every Ugandan to feel safe,” Bobi Wine said.
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“I am confident that our supporters are going to cast their votes and protect them,” he added.
On internet shutdown, Bobi Wine claimed that it was an organised strategy for government operatives do carry out massive ballot stuffing and rigging.
Museveni of National Resistance Movement (NRM) had earlier claimed that opposition leaders are the ones notorious of vote-rigging.
He claimed that opposition tried to rig the previous election.
There was heavy police presence countrywide, with opposition crying foul following reports that in some polling stations around Entebbe, the military actively took over the role of distributing election materials.
Apart from Museveni and Bobi Wine, other presidential candidates are Elton Joseph Mabirizi of Conservative Party (CP), Robert Kasibante of National Peasants Party (NPP), Nathan Nandala Mafabi of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Mugisha Muntu of Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Munyagwa Mubarak Sserunga (“Mugati gwa Butter”) of Common Man’s Party (CMP), and Frank Bulira Kabinga of Revolutionary People’s Party (RPP).
All presidential candidates in the 2026 elections are male.
Ugandans will know their next president at least by Saturday (tomorrow).
While the Commission is the final authority, there are claims online of varied figures. Dawan Africa could not independently verify the claims.
