🔴 Claim
In an article published on January 22 by South Africa’s leading news site, the Daily Maverick, veteran journalist Peter Fabricius wrote:
It was Museveni’s largest electoral victory since he took power via a military coup in 1986 and subsequently entrenched his power in regular elections after democracy was introduced in 1996.
The article, titled “Uganda’s jailed opposition leader is ‘seriously ill’ and should be released for proper treatment, his wife says“, focused on Besigye’s incarceration and deteriorating health. It also noted President Museveni’s share of the vote and said Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, represented the opposition and was Mr Museveni’s main challenger.
🔴 What OJ-UGANDA checked
All Museveni’s vote percentages since 1996, when he contested his first presidential election after seizing power and ruling unelected for 10 years.
🔴 What we found
- Mr Museveni’s largest win was, in fact, in 1996, not 2026. He won 74.3 of the vote, as the table below shows. But various international news organisations, including the BBC and the Economist, cited conflicting percentages.
🔴 Conclusion
Peter Fabricius’s claim was based on supposition, not on the electoral data the Electoral Commission has. Daily Maverick believed what the journalist wrote on trust in part due to his vast experience.
READ OUR PREVIOUS FACT-CHECKS
🔴 We fact-check claims, speeches and trending topics with cold, hard evidence. If it is misleading and fact-checkable, we will bring it to your attention. Remember: We started this website to serve as a source of credible information, a trusted alternative to social media noise. We are the fruit and veg of discerning information consumers. Do not read junk.