Kofi Annan Foundation
18 January 2021
UGANDA: Stability without legitimacy cannot last
On Saturday, Uganda’s electoral commission announced that 76-year-old incumbent President Yoweri Museveni won a sixth term in Uganda’s general elections last week by a landslide. Sebastian Brack, Head of Elections and Democracy at the Kofi Annan Foundation, explains why stability without legitimacy cannot last.
Unfortunately, this victory is unlikely to confer the mantle of legitimacy that leaders need to rule effectively. The results have already been denounced by the opposition, whose leader is under house arrest, claiming they have proof of fraud.
Professor Nic Cheeseman, an expert on elections in Africa who participated in the Society for International Development/Kofi Annan Foundation’s recent conference on democracy in East Africa, had cautioned ahead of the elections: “This is not really an election; it is a staged event.”