Uganda's Bobi Wine 'Beaten' After Filing Presidential Candidacy

Ugandan police on Tuesday detained presidential aspirant Bobi Wine and violently dispersed his supporters, his party said, after the pop star-turned-politician registered his candidacy to challenge Yoweri Museveni in 2021.

Wine, a 38-year-old opposition MP whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was forcefully pulled from his car and thrown into a van after submitting his nomination papers to election officials in Kampala, his National Unity Party said.

Party secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya told AFP that Wine, whose quest to unseat one of Africa's longest-serving rulers has amassed a popular youth following -- was taken by force to his home where supporters waited to congratulate the freshly-certified presidential candidate.

"Police, supported by the army, fired teargas to disperse supporters of Bobi Wine who had come to his home to welcome him from the nomination exercise," said Rubongoya, who added that security forces were keeping Wine under guard.

"The army and police have taken over the residence and closed the road leading to the place."

Earlier, images broadcast on Ugandan television showed police smashing the windows of Wine's car and clashing with his supporters at Kyambogo University, where over two days the election commission cleared 11 candidates to contest the presidency in early 2021.

Museveni, who had the constitution amended twice to allow him to run a sixth time in 2021, filed his candidacy Monday as the flag bearer for the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

Police spokesman Fred Enanga said Wine was detained because he planned to hold an "illegal" rally following his nomination, something the election commission had banned due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus.

"He was forcefully removed from his vehicle, and a fracas ensued in the process of transferring him to the police vehicle. He was eventually safely delivered to his home," Enanga said in a joint statement issued by Uganda's security forces.

He said Wine and his supporters were involved in "violent running battles" with security forces, with three officers and four civilians injured, and two police vehicles damaged. Some 49 arrests were made, Enanga said.

Another opposition presidential candidate, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, arrived shoeless and dishevelled to file his candidacy after being intercepted en route to party headquarters and bundled into a police van.

"It is disgusting, disappointing, but this was expected by a regime that is shameless, desperate to cling to power," Amuriat told AFP after being marched by police across the university grounds in his socks, his suit askew.

He said the headquarters of his party, the Forum for Democratic Change, was surrounded by police and military ahead of his nomination.

Police spokesman Enanga said Amuriat had also planned a rally in defiance of police orders and was "safely transported" to submit his nomination papers to election officials.

The US embassy in Kampala had warned of "elevated potential for civil disturbances" near the university on Tuesday, and advised Americans to steer clear.

Wine, nicknamed the "Ghetto President", has faced escalating police harassment since announcing his intention to challenge Museveni, who seized power at the head of a rebel army in 1986.

His concerts are routinely banned and public rallies broken up with teargas, and Wine himself is frequently detained.

His catchy pop songs about social justice, poverty and corruption have shaken the ruling party and its ageing patriarch Museveni, who at 76 is the only president most Ugandans have ever known.

Observers have said however that the political opposition is weaker divided, and unless a united front challenges Museveni he could be difficult to unseat.