Political analyst Charles Rwomushana has raised serious concerns over the credibility of the recently concluded 2026 general presidential and parliamentary elections, citing widespread technical failures of biometric voter verification kits (BVVKs) that he says undermined the core democratic principle of one person, one vote.
Speaking during NBS Barometer on Tuesday, Rwomushana emphasised that electoral credibility is the cornerstone of any democratic process, warning that the integrity of the January 15, 2026 polls was compromised by delays and malfunctioning technology at polling stations across the country.
“The most important aspect of an election is credibility. It must uphold the principle of one person, one vote. Yet we now have a head of state who is complaining,” he noted, pointing to inconsistencies and gaps in voter verification.
According to him, many eligible voters were unable to cast their ballots due to late starts and operational failures of the BVVK machines.
In several areas, the kits reportedly failed to start or function properly, leaving election officials without reliable biometric data on voters who attempted to verify their identities using fingerprints or facial recognition.
The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) had strongly backed the introduction of biometric voter verification, viewing it as a safeguard against electoral fraud and as a way to protect its electoral strength—particularly in urban opposition strongholds where previous election outcomes had raised questions about the incumbent’s level of popular support.
However, the promise of enhanced transparency was tested during the elections when technical breakdowns affected numerous polling stations nationwide. In response, the Electoral Commission (EC) issued directives allowing voting to proceed using the manual voters’ register wherever BVVKs failed, citing existing electoral guidelines.
While the EC maintained that this decision prevented voter disenfranchisement and ensured continuity of the voting process, critics argue that reverting to manual systems weakened the transparency and accountability that biometric verification was meant to guarantee.
“Once you lose biometric verification, you lose the audit trail. We now lack verifiable data on who voted using fingerprints or facial identification, which creates uncertainty and suspicion around the final results,” Rwomushana said.
Despite these concerns, the Electoral Commission proceeded to declare the final results. Speaking at the Commission’s headquarters in Lubowa on Saturday, EC Chairperson Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama announced incumbent President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the winner of the 2026 presidential election.
According to the official tally, Museveni secured 7,946,772 votes, representing 71.65 percent of the total valid votes cast, thereby extending his rule to a seventh term in office.
The victory marks the first time in three decades that Museveni has surpassed the 70 percent threshold, a feat he last achieved in 1996 when he garnered 74.3 percent of the vote.
His main challenger, National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, received 2,741,238 votes, accounting for 24.72 percent.
Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) came third with 209,039 votes (1.88 percent), while the remaining five candidates each received less than one percent of the vote.