2016 Ugandan general election

2016 Ugandan general election
← 2011 18 February 2016 (2016-02-18) 2021 →
Opinion polls
Registered15,277,198
Presidential election
Turnout67.61% (Increase 8.32 pp)
 
Nominee Yoweri Museveni Kizza Besigye
Party NRM FDC
Popular vote 5,971,872 3,508,687
Percentage 60.62% 35.61%
Presidential election results map. Yellow denotes provinces won by Museveni, and Blue denotes those won by Besigye.
President before election

Yoweri Museveni
NRM

Elected President

Yoweri Museveni
NRM

Parliamentary election
416 of the 426 seats in Parliament
209 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
NRM Yoweri Museveni 48.88 293 +30
FDC Kizza Besigye 12.73 36 +2
DP Norbert Mao 4.34 15 +3
UPC Olara Otunnu 2.14 6 −4
Independents – 31.16 66 +23
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Speaker of Parliament before Speaker of Parliament after
Rebecca Kadaga
NRM		 Rebecca Kadaga
NRM
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General elections were held in Uganda on 18 February 2016 to elect the President and Parliament. Polling day was declared a national holiday.[1][2]

Presidential candidates included incumbent Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, Kizza Besigye,[3] who had run against Museveni in 2001, 2006 and 2011, former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, Abed Bwanika who has also challenged Museveni in 2001, 2006 and 2011, former Makerere University Vice Chancellor Venansius Baryamureeba, retired Army General Benon Biraaro, Joseph Mabirizi and former presidential advisor Faith Kyalya. Claims of rigging and violence at polling stations were reported and voting was extended in several locations after reports of people not being allowed to cast their votes.[4] According to the Electoral Commission, Museveni was re-elected with 61% of the vote to Besigye's 35%.

Opposition candidates claimed that the elections were marred by widespread fraud, voting irregularities, the repeated arrest of opposition politicians and a climate of voter intimidation.[5] The European Union and United States have since criticised the election for lack of transparency and detentions of opposition candidates.[6][7] Overseers from the Commonwealth of Nations were critical of the misuse of state powers in favour of the incumbent.

  1. ^ "Uganda elections polling date set on Feb 18, 2016" Archived December 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, New Vision, 4 November 2015.
  2. ^ "Uganda Discovered the Zika Virus. And the Solution for It". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  3. ^ "Uganda: Copy Kenya, Tanzania on Term Limits, Says Besigye". allAfrica.com. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
  4. ^ (www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle. "With change unlikely, Ugandans brace for elections | Africa | DW.COM | 18.01.2016". DW.COM. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
  5. ^ "Uganda's Opposition Leader Kizza Besigye Arrested After Alleging Fraud In Elections". International Business Times. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference auto3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).