Uganda, Museveni’s seventh reconfirmation as president. The anger of the opposition | EUROtoday

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Nairobi – No surprises from Uganda. The normal elections in Kampala on 15 January have already sealed the landslide victory of Yoweri Museveni, elected for the seventh consecutive mandate and projected into his fortieth yr on the prime of the central-eastern African nation.

The knowledge revealed on January 17 by the Electoral Commission recorded 72% of the votes in favor of the 81-year-old Museveni, in comparison with the 25% achieved by the challenger Bobi Wine, the 43-year-old former pop star who had already denounced the dangers of a farcical election and claims to have been arrested on the night of January 16. The opposition rejects the outcomes and requires a response, now facilitated by the restoration of the Internet after the blackout imposed final January 13 in Kampala, The Pan-African Solidarity Network, a pan-African group of activists, had contested the spherical as missing any “credibility” and introduced new investigations into the vote.

Uganda between financial growth and autocracy

The vote opens up a precarious situation for Uganda, with round 50 million inhabitants on the border between central and japanese Africa. Kampala enjoys stability above the regional common, good worldwide relations and flattering financial prospects, not less than of their macro projection.

The nation, already affluent in minerals, is heading for a surge of over 10% of GDP between 2026 and 2027 due to the beginning of oil manufacturing anticipated inside the yr and destined to attract on reserves estimated at 6.6 billion barrels. The authorities aspires to an financial exploit as much as the edge of 500 billion US {dollars} by 2040, tenfolding the present measurement of the GDP.

But institutional aspirations transfer at a distinct tempo in comparison with the fragility of a Veneto nation characterised by tensions, rising poverty and a better unemployment charge than is clear from official statistics. It is above all younger individuals who endure the results, a related demographic and political group in a rustic the place half of the inhabitants travels beneath the age of 18.