Police in Uganda arrest suspected protesters after they demonstrate their support for opposition leader Kizza Besigye.
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It said that President Museveni had won 60.75% of the vote, while his main opponent Kizza Besigye had taken 35%.
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party spokesman Semujju Nganda said police took the leader to an unknown location.
Museveni has 62% of the vote and Besigye has 33%, according to results from about 23% of polling stations across the country, as announced by the election commission.
Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected in October on a promise to accept more Syrian refugees more quickly than the previous Conservative government had allowed, but the original deadline for accepting 25,000 by the end of 2015 proved too ambitious and the timeline was extended by two months. Museveni is one of the continent’s longest serving presidents, alongside Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Kerry urged Museveni to rein in the security forces.
Museveni’s NRM party said it was confident the veteran leader would win enough votes to avoid a run-off vote.
Besigye was later detained for the third time this week, being bundled into the back of police van along with several of his supporters, according to a Reuters witness.
Police have arrested Besigya four times since the day of election and the opposition candidate is now detained at his house in the capital Kampala.
The U.N. envoy in charge of human rights issues in Uganda, Uchenna Emelonye, said the delays and the social media block had a human rights implication that had been raised with national authorities.
The party released the statement shortly after the results were announced.
While “voting was conducted in a calm and peaceful environment in the vast majority of the country”, the European Union observers noted a “lack of transparency and independence of the Electoral Commission”.
The FDC is alleging massive vote rigging, and accuses the government of deliberately stalling voting in opposition strongholds.
The election has been marred by sporadic violence and opposition allegations of electoral fraud, with social media sites and messaging apps blocked.
A total of 36 polling stations in the city and the surrounding Wakiso district were due to reopen on Friday morning.
Besigye was Museveni’s field doctor during the war which brought him to power, and served as deputy interior minister in his first cabinet.
US Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Mr Museveni, and told him that the arrest “calls into question Uganda’s commitment to a transparent and credible election process free from intimidation”, the state department said in a statement.
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Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected for a fifth term, extending his 30-year rule over the East African nation in polls marked by opposition arrests and global concern over the vote’s credibility.
