Uganda will vote on Thursday in presidential and parliamentary elections marred by political repression as singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine challenges President Yoweri Museveni’s 34-year rule. The most prominent of the ten opposition candidates is the National Unity Platform’s Bobi Wine – a 38-year-old ragga star who has used his popularity with Uganda’s youthful population to defy the 76-year-old president and his party the National Resistance Movement (NRM). On December 26, the government banned campaign rallies in the capital Kampala and 15 other counties, citing the risk of spreading Covid-19. This is despite Uganda recording just 301 coronavirus deaths. Its population is regarded as one of the least at-risk because it is the world’s second-youngest, with more than 48 percent of Ugandans aged under 15. ‘A staged event’ Wine (whose given name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) said at a press conference on January 7 that he “expected a live bullet targeted at me any time”, and announced that he had asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Museveni and senior officials for human rights abuses dating back to 2018 – namely “widespread use of shoot to kill, beatings and other violence”. One of Wine’s bodyguards was killed and two journalists injured in confrontations between security forces and his supporters on December 27. Wine said his bodyguard died after an army vehicle ran him over. He added that the bodyguard was helping an injured cameraman who was reportedly shot in the head in an earlier altercation. The army said the bodyguard died from injuries caused by falling out of a car. The following day, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, presidential candidate for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, collapsed and was hospitalised after police pepper-sprayed him in the eyes as he tried to join supporters at a rally. November had seen a much higher death toll. Wine was arrested for breaking Covid-19 restrictions at a rally – sparking unrest across the country, with protesters blocking roads in Kampala. The security forces cracked down with tear gas and bullets. At least 54 people were killed and more than a thousand arrested. “This is no longer really an election,” said Nic Cheeseman, professor of democracy and international development at Birmingham University. “It is a staged event to try to legitimate Museveni’s presidency and the ruling party.” “Violent repression is nothing new in Uganda,” added Eloise Bertrand, an expert on Uganda at Warwick University. But “repression appears to have intensified this time and to target more stakeholders”. Museveni declared that “the overall security posture of Uganda is robust” and that “it was definitely a miscalculation for the schemers to imagine that they could use such anti-people techniques” in a televised address on November 30. The Ugandan president then appointed his son, a general, as head of the special forces on December 17. “It’s clear that this is about ensuring control of the most effective element of the military,” said Ben Shepherd, a former adviser on