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An unpaved road leads to the primary school in the village of Tweyanze.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni fought a guerrilla war against the brutal regime of dictator Milton Obote here, an hour north of the capital Kampala, in the 1980s.

Now the knee-deep potholes are reminiscent of Museveni's broken election campaign promise to advance the infrastructure of his former support area.

Here in the country the support for Museveni was actually always higher than in the city.

There are significantly more young adults there who tend to be more opposed.

"In our village almost everyone used to vote for Museveni," said the teacher Ssennono Edward Kintu, 42, "now many think it is time for a change." But it is not that easy in Uganda.

In Tweyanze, too, many expected on election day on Thursday what was becoming apparent on Friday.

Museveni, 76, is likely to be re-confirmed in office under highly controversial circumstances to say the least.

The electoral commission said that after counting almost every second polling station, 63 percent would have voted for the incumbent, and only 28 percent for his young challenger Bobi Wine.

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Museveni has ruled for 35 years.

The increasingly autocratic president has rightly identified his allegedly inferior challenger Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, 38, as the greatest threat to his regime to date.

The opposition politician, who became known as a pop and reggae singer, is seen as a bearer of hope not only in large parts of Uganda, but in many countries on the continent.

Nigeria's Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka, describes the eloquent candidate as a representative of the "spirit of Africa's future" - the elections in Uganda are "trend-setting" for Africa.

Worldwide only five heads of state have been in office longer than Museveni, three of them in African countries.

The right measures against the HIV epidemic

Museveni's thirst for power and the anything but new but dramatically increasing harassment of the opposition thwart his own early ideals.

Africa's biggest problem is "leaders who stay in office too long," he lectured in the 1980s.

Around 1990, the country was one of the African countries that came closest to the World Bank definitions of “good governance” that had just been published at the time. Museveni was respected in the West, and problems could be explained in detail for hours.

He took the right measures against the HIV epidemic and reduced poverty more effectively than many other countries on the continent.

This is where incumbent President Museveni casts his vote

Source: AFP

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Museveni is still considered a discipline-obsessed workaholic.

Meanwhile, Uganda is much closer to China than to the west, the country supplies the surveillance cameras with which the police spy out the access routes to Wine's house.

The offer by the European Union (EU) to send an election observation mission was ignored.

And so there is only a very blurred perspective on the mechanisms with which Museveni can be confirmed for his sixth term.

Wine called the result of the previous count "a joke".

He is confident that he has “clearly beaten the dictator”.

Shortly afterwards, he announced that the army had climbed over the wall of his private estate and had "taken control of our house".

Bobi Wine claims the election victory for himself

Source: AFP

On Thursday he had received WELT there, a group of heavily armed police officers in front of the house allowed the conversation.

Wine had already said then that he had evidence of irregularities, although he did not provide any evidence.

"There can be no peace without justice," he said, but pointed out that one stands for "peaceful protest".

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The courts are in the hands of Museveni, "but we will still protest there".

The security forces had already admitted the killing of dozens of people in connection with Wine rallies during the election campaign in late 2020.

"The police and the army are trying to provoke a violent reaction in order to be able to justify even greater brutality," said Wine.

Should he one day actually come to power, one of the most difficult tasks will be to control the Museveni-loyal security forces.

Many influential ministers are former generals who wanted the entanglement.

Museveni's election motto, “Securing your future”, which is emblazoned on Museveni's yellow election posters, was to be taken literally, the future occupation of the highest office was considered by observers to be determined.

He would accept any result, Museveni said in advance on CNN, "Uganda is not my house" - and probably already had an idea of ​​what this result might look like.

Museveni privatized the economy

Museveni took power in 1986 after a guerrilla war when Uganda was worn down by years of civil war.

There was hardly any electricity, the state had failed in parts.

Museveni privatized the economy, brought more ethnic groups into the army and regional elites into government.

In peace missions of the African Union (AU), especially in the crisis state Somalia, Museveni's soldiers are among the most important contingents on the continent.

People are waiting in a long line to cast their votes

Source: REUTERS

The successes in stabilizing Uganda continue to be given high credit to Museveni in the village of Tweyanze by some.

Many of the older people who are waiting in the meadow in front of the school to cast their vote show Museveni their unconditional gratitude for the stability into which he has brought Uganda.

“When I was a child, soldiers killed people everywhere, including my relatives,” said the farmer Robinah Nanyanzi, 45, “we starved, our cattle were stolen.

When Museveni came I was able to go back to school, he rebuilt Uganda. ”Those who support the opposition candidate Bobi Wine among the 700 or so voters registered are probably only doing so because he was not yet born in the bloody 1980s.

In the meadow here, many countered the farmer that Museveni now has blood on his hands himself.

His security forces never killed more people - officially 54, probably significantly more.

That he's stuck in power for so long.

And that agriculture is still the only source of income in the area, contrary to Museveni's promise of modernization.

Five years ago, 70 percent of the village elected the president.

This time only 50 percent, believes Nanyanzi.

Security guards ensure that there are no incidents during the election

Source: AFP

Because today Museveni's governance appears in a different light.

The state apparatus is inflated with its loyalists, and the parliament has over 500 members - and total annual costs of around 200,000 euros are budgeted for each.

The roughly two euros that are calculated in Uganda for the basic nutrition of a family, however, still cannot be raised by large parts of the population.

And in the face of the violence, he sometimes seems to have scruples himself.

If only briefly.

In October he wrote an open letter to the police in which he called for moderation - only to threaten the supporters of the opposition again in a martial tone a few days later.