The victory of President-elect Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in last week’s General Election has been thrown into hands of the Supreme Court. Mr Robert Kasibante, one of the eight presidential candidates in the race, has petitioned the court seeking annulment of the poll over alleged widespread irregularities, violence, and non compliance with electoral laws. In a petition filed on January 17, Mr Kasibante of National Peasants Party sued President Museveni, the Electoral Commission (EC), and the Attorney General, arguing that the election held on January 15 was neither free nor fair and did not reflect the will of the Ugandan electorate.
‘The petitioner (Mr Kasibante), dissatisfied and aggrieved by the conduct of the elections held on January 15, 2026 for the position of President of the Republic of Uganda, hereby challenges the validity of the election through this petition. The petitioner contends that the election was neither free nor fair and was marked by non compliance with electoral laws,’ Mr Kasibante contends in his petition. He adds: ‘The first respondent (President elect Yoweri Museveni), either personally or through agents acting with his knowledge, consent, and approval, committed electoral offences and unlawful acts.
Consequently, the petitioner asserts that the first respondent was not legitimately elected and declared the winner of the presidential election.’ According to the Electoral Commission, Museveni was declared the winner with 7,946,772 votes, representing 71.65 percent of the total valid votes cast. Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, of National Unity Platform, came in a distant second with 2,741,238 votes (24.72 percent), while Mr Kasibante garnered 33,440 votes, finishing in sixth place.
Other candidates included Nathan Nandala Mafabi of Forum for Democratic Change who came third with 209,039 (1.88 percent), Maj Gen Gregory Mugisha Muntu of Alliance for National Transformation who finished fourth with 59,276 (0.53 percent), Frank Bulira of Revolutionary People’s Party who came fifth with 45,959 (0.41 percent) and Mubarak Munyagwa of Common Man’s Party who finished seventh with 31,666 (0.29 percent). Mr Joseph Mabirizi of Conservative Party came eighth with 23,458 (0.21 percent). Mr Kasibante argues that the entire electoral process, from voter registration to tallying and declaration of results, was riddled with illegalities and gross violations of the Constitution, the Electoral Commission Act, and the Presidential Elections Act. He insists these irregularities substantially affected the final outcome.
Allegations against the EC Mr Kasibante accuses the EC of failing to act independently, alleging it was swayed by President Museveni, senior government officials, and ruling NRM leaders. He claims thousands of voters were unlawfully deregistered, Opposition candidates were unfairly blocked from nomination, and complaints raised during the election period were swept under the rug. A major ground of the petition relates to the alleged failure by the EC to gazette more than 15,000 polling stations ahead of polling day.
Mr Kasibante argues that these ungazetted stations, nearly 30 percent of all nationwide, were illegal and that votes cast there should be struck off the tally. He also challenges the use of Biometric Voter Verification (BVV) machines, which he says failed spectacularly. According to him, they were deployed without a proper legal framework, were unreliable, and never subjected to an independent audit. ‘The petitioner avers and contends that the process of counting, tallying, and transmitting results from the polling stations, to district tallying centres and finally to the national tallying centre lacked transparency,’ Mr Kasibante contends.
During last Thursday’s elections, widespread failure of BVV kits was reported, likely linked to the Internet shutdown. The glitches delayed voting by four or more hours at thousands of polling stations, forcing the EC to extend voting and revert to manual methods. Reports from Jinja, Wakiso, Mukono, Masaka, and Gulu districts indicated polling officials struggled to operate the machines. Mr Kasibante further alleges that candidates were denied access to inspect or test the systems used for verification and results transmission.
Violence and intimidation
Mr Kasibante accuses the President -elect and State security agencies of orchestrating widespread violence, intimidation, and harassment of Opposition candidates and supporters. He alleges that the UPDF and police disrupted rallies, assaulted candidates, and issued unlawful directives forcing voters to leave polling stations immediately after voting. He cites the Gulu incident where security personnel beat up several NUP supporters.
‘Candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, while campaigning in accordance with the harmonised campaign schedule, was severely subjected to violence and harassment. On December 6, 2025, while campaigning in Gulu, the army attacked and disrupted his campaign rally and other campaign events, beating up his supporters. The 2nd respondent (EC) acknowledged this violence,’ the petitioner stated. He added: ‘On November 28, 2025, while campaigning in Iganga Municipality, the army and the police attacked and disrupted the campaign events of candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, and a businessman was shot dead.’
Use of government resources
The petition also alleges misuse of state resources for campaign purposes, including government vehicles, security forces, public institutions, and state media. Kasibante claims state owned outlets such as New Vision and UBC provided wall to wall coverage in favour of Museveni. ‘Notably, the New Vision newspaper consistently featured the first Respondent on the front page, displaying full page coverage with images of the campaign activities throughout the entire election period,’ the petitioner said. He further claimed that government cars ferried supporters to Museveni’s rallies, school heads conscripted students to attend rallies, and public spaces like Entebbe Airport and Kololo Airstrip were off limits to other candidates.
Police and army vehicles allegedly doubled as campaign buses, while their spokespeople became mouthpieces for Museveni. Kasibante points to the Supreme Court’s 2016 recommendations after Amama Mbabazi’s petition, which urged equal access to state media for all candidates. He argues these were ignored, leaving Opposition voices drowned out. Kasibante’s petition also raises claims of voter bribery, improper inducements, abusive language by the incumbent, lack of transparency in tallying, alteration of declaration forms, restricted access to tally centres, and unexplained discrepancies between polling station and district results. Efforts to reach NRM officials Emmanuel Dombo and Tanga Odoi for comment were futile – calls went unanswered, leaving questions hanging in the air.
Prayers to the court
Kasibante asks the Supreme Court to declare Museveni not duly elected, nullify the results, order an audit of election returns and biometric systems, and direct the EC to conduct a fresh poll in strict compliance with the law. ‘Declare that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa was not duly elected as President of Uganda accordingly,’ he prays to the court. Museveni’s victories have often ended up in the Supreme Court, though none of the petitions have succeeded. The last was in 2021, filed by runner up Kyagulanyi, who later withdrew citing alleged bias. The Supreme Court is yet to fix a hearing date. Under the Constitution, it must determine a presidential petition within 30 days of filing. By press time, it remained unclear whether Kyagulanyi would join Kasibante in challenging Museveni’s victory in court.