Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni, has dismissed claims of vote rigging.
Museveni has also dismissed criticism from international election observers that the elections lacked transparency and independence.
Museveni, in power since 1986, was declared the winner on Saturday but Kizza Besigye, his main challenger, who was under house arrest on Sunday, called the election a sham.
Another candidate, Amama Mbabazi, said it was “fundamentally flawed”.
The EU observer mission said Thursday’s vote had been conducted in an “intimidating” atmosphere.
Chief observer Eduard Kukan said it had been undermined by a “lack of transparency and independence” at the electoral commission.
The United States also criticized the handling of the vote and raised concerns about the house arrest of Besigye, who was in detention for the fourth time in a week and alleged that his electronic communication had been blocked.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Museveni on Friday to voice concern over the harassment of opposition figures and the shutdown of social media in Uganda, where Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have faced outages since election day.
“Mr John Kerry rang me and I told him: ‘Don’t worry, we’re experts in managing all those things (elections)’,” said Museveni.
Susan Mwongeli reports.
