Museveni Claims Bobi Wine Printed One Million Fake Ballots to Rig 2026 Election

President Yoweri Museveni has sensationally claimed that his chief political rival, Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, and the National Unity Platform (NUP) attempted to subvert the 2026 general election by injecting millions of counterfeit ballots into the system.

In a direct broadside against the opposition following his declared victory, Museveni alleged that the NUP orchestrated a sophisticated rigging scheme that spanned from the streets of Kampala to the United Arab Emirates.

Addressing a high-level meeting of security chiefs and selected media on Wednesday, January 28, the President detailed what he described as a “massive cheating operation” aimed at manufacturing an opposition victory.

According to Museveni, the alleged fraud was executed through two main channels. He claimed that one million fake ballots were printed locally at Nkrumah Road, a central business hub in Kampala known for its printing industry.

The President further alleged that an additional 1.7 million ballots were professionally printed in Dubai and smuggled into the country to be stuffed into ballot boxes across various regions.

“When you hear that there is opposition, there is no opposition in Uganda. It is just cheating,” Museveni stated. “They had printed one million ballots from Nkrumah Road and 1.7 million from Dubai. But they were caught by the technology.”

The President credited the Biometric Voter Verification Kits (BVVK) for neutralizing the threat, asserting that the digital systems prevented the “infiltrated” ballots from being validated during the counting process.

The National Unity Platform has vehemently denied the allegations, describing them as a “clumsy attempt” by the President to justify what they call a stolen election.

Speaking from his hideout, Bobi Wine countered that the 2026 polls were marred by state-sponsored violence, the arrest of his agents, and a nationwide internet blackout that facilitated “industrial-scale” ballot stuffing by the ruling NRM.

“The world saw the videos of soldiers stuffing boxes. The world saw our people being kidnapped. For Museveni to turn around and accuse us of printing ballots is the height of irony,” a spokesperson for the NUP stated.

The exchange of accusations comes amidst a tense atmosphere in the capital. The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has recently intensified his rhetoric against the NUP leader, whom he characterized as a “coward” in a series of social media posts.

While the police have not yet produced a formal charge sheet regarding the “fake ballots,” the military remains heavily deployed around the outskirts of Kampala and Magere, the site of Bobi Wine’s residence.

Political analysts suggest that Museveni’s latest claims are designed to delegitimize the opposition’s grievances before the international community.