UGANDA ELECTIONS: Museveni Leads Early With 75% As Bobi Wine Struggles
Uganda’s electoral landscape is taking form, with President Yoweri Museveni taking an early commanding lead in the 2026 presidential election.
The Uganda Electoral Commission (EC) issued the second preliminary results on Friday, confirming that Museveni had received 3,960,438 votes, or 76.25 per cent of all valid ballots counted.
The results, released by the EC Chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama, are based on tallies from 22,758 polling stations, totaling 5,194,338 legitimate votes.
The update also highlighted votes won by other candidates, notably opposition leader Bobi Wine, who garnered 1,312,047 votes, or 19.85 per cent, while other candidates’ percentages remained in the single digits.
The Chairperson of the Uganda Electoral Commission (EC), Justice Simon Byabakama, has announced the second set of preliminary results of the 2026 presidential election, as the tallying process continues nationwide. Justice Byabakama said a total of 5,194,338 valid votes had been… pic.twitter.com/8nodxCwDGn
— TheStarKenya (@TheStarKenya) January 16, 2026
Other candidates continue to have single-digit shares.
Frank Bulira received 23,267 votes (0.45%), Robert Kasibante 15,929 votes (0.31%), Joseph Mabirizi 10,910 votes (0.21%), Mugisha Muntu 29,504 votes (0.57%), Mubarak Munyagwa 14,742 votes (0.28%), and Nandala Mafabi 108,301 votes (2.08%).
The EC also revealed 129,441 invalid votes and 17,281 spoiled ballots, increasing the total number of votes counted thus far to 5,323,779.
Justice Byabakama stated that the next update would be issued at 2:00 PM on January 16, 2026, as counting proceeds in various locations of the country.
Museveni’s early lead is consistent with previous election results in which the long-serving president performed well.
BREAKING: President Museveni leading with 76.25% (3.9m votes) and Bobi Wine at 19.85% (1.3m votes) with 45% of polling stations reporting on Friday morning, Uganda’s electoral commission announces pic.twitter.com/OI5x58s2pH
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) January 16, 2026
The election is a high-stakes rematch between 43-year-old opposition leader Bobi Wine (Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) and 81-year-old incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, who has held power for four decades.
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Uganda’s election process came under sharp focus on Thursday after President Yoweri Museveni himself was affected by biometric verification failures that disrupted voting across the country.
At his polling station, electronic voter identification machines failed to recognise Museveni’s fingerprints, briefly preventing him from casting his ballot and mirroring challenges reported by many voters nationwide.
“I put my right fingerprints on the machines, but it didn’t work. The machine did not accept it. I put my left fingerprints, but it did not accept it,” Museveni told journalists after the incident.
“It could be they took them in a different angle. But my face was scanned and accepted by the machine,” he said.
UGANDA ELECTIONS: Museveni Leads Early With 75% As Bobi Wine Struggles
