Uganda elections: Besigye back under home detention

Kizza Besigye has now lost four consecutive presidential elections to Yoweri Museveni

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been returned to home detention under heavy security, a day after he was taken to a police station for trying to protest against presidential election results.

President Yoweri Museveni, who seized power as the leader of a rebellion in 1986, was returned to power in last week's vote with 60.8 percent of the ballot, the electoral commission said.


Besigye secured 35.4 percent, according to the results, in a poll that he alleged was rigged. The 59-year-old opposition veteran, who was placed under house arrest by authorities on Friday, was taken away when he attempted to leave his home and join supporters who had planned to march on the headquarters of the country's electoral commission in the capital, Kampala.

Besigye was quickly bundled by police into an unmarked van, which then sped from the property pursued by other police vehicles, and cars carrying supporters and journalists.

He was kept in a police cell until about 10pm local time, when police took him home, supporters said.
There were later unconfirmed reports on Twitter that he had been driven away by police again.

"He is still under police guard, and it seems a heavier deployment than before, so clearly they don't want him to leave his home," Ibrahim Ssemujju, a spokesman for Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, told Al Jazeera.

Ssemujju said there was no indication of how long Besigye was expected to be kept inside his home by police.

"They will never tell us that and right now we don't know what their next move will be," Ssemujju said.