Uganda's main opposition leader was held by officers on Monday at a police station outside the capital after being taken from his home where he had been under house arrest.
Kizza Besigye has rejected the results of Thursday's election won by veteran President Yoweri Museveni, and called on his supporters to join a protest march to the Electoral Commission headquarters in Kampala on Monday.
A police spokesman said Besigye was being held at the Nagalama police station around 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the capital under "preventative arrest".
"We are preventing him from going to cause violence around the Electoral Commission offices," said Patrick Onyango, the Kampala police spokesman.
Official results declared on Saturday gave Museveni 60 percent of the vote against 35 percent for Besigye, who was arrested three times before, during and after the election.
Ugandan police said in a statement that Besigye's planned march would be illegal, adding that with the start of the new school term Monday it would also "infringe on the collective rights of the parents and their school-going children".
Besigye was placed under house arrest on Friday after police raided his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) headquarters accusing party officials of planning to release their own tally of results, contravening electoral law.
Police on Monday took Besigye from his home in Kasangati, north of the capital Kampala, according to city police spokesman Onyango.
Besigye did not speak as he was bundled into a van with tinted windows and driven away.
- 'Like military barracks here', wife says -
Besigye's wife Winnnie Byanyima, who is also executive director of the charity Oxfam International, tweeted a photograph of riot police outside the family home saying: "It's like a military barracks. We want peace."
Also on Monday the FDC alleged that eight of its "data entry staff" were arrested by police after another police raid on the party office.
Former Nigeria president Olusegun Obasanjo, who heads the Commonwealth election observer group, on Monday called for restraint.
"I urge government and opposition stakeholders to work together in a spirit of open and inclusive dialogue," Obasanjo said. "Police and security forces and political party supporters should exercise restraint and avoid unnecessary confrontations."
Besigye has now lost four consecutive presidential elections. Each time he has cried foul and each time street protests against his defeat have been swiftly crushed by security forces.
Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, hailed his victory, and dismissed Besigye's complaints and the concerns of observer groups who have criticised the election as unfair.
"The opposition are not leaders, they are just demagogues, liars, just talking, talking," the 71-year old said on Sunday.
"Those Europeans are not serious," he said in reference to European Union election observers who said Uganda's Electoral Commission lacked transparency and that police were heavy-handed in their treatment of the opposition.
Uganda’s main opposition leader was held by officers on Monday at a police station outside the capital after being taken from his home where he had been under house arrest.
Kizza Besigye has rejected the results of Thursday’s election won by veteran President Yoweri Museveni, and called on his supporters to join a protest march to the Electoral Commission headquarters in Kampala on Monday.
A police spokesman said Besigye was being held at the Nagalama police station around 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the capital under “preventative arrest”.
“We are preventing him from going to cause violence around the Electoral Commission offices,” said Patrick Onyango, the Kampala police spokesman.
Official results declared on Saturday gave Museveni 60 percent of the vote against 35 percent for Besigye, who was arrested three times before, during and after the election.
Ugandan police said in a statement that Besigye’s planned march would be illegal, adding that with the start of the new school term Monday it would also “infringe on the collective rights of the parents and their school-going children”.
Besigye was placed under house arrest on Friday after police raided his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) headquarters accusing party officials of planning to release their own tally of results, contravening electoral law.
Police on Monday took Besigye from his home in Kasangati, north of the capital Kampala, according to city police spokesman Onyango.
Besigye did not speak as he was bundled into a van with tinted windows and driven away.
– ‘Like military barracks here’, wife says –
Besigye’s wife Winnnie Byanyima, who is also executive director of the charity Oxfam International, tweeted a photograph of riot police outside the family home saying: “It’s like a military barracks. We want peace.”
Also on Monday the FDC alleged that eight of its “data entry staff” were arrested by police after another police raid on the party office.
Former Nigeria president Olusegun Obasanjo, who heads the Commonwealth election observer group, on Monday called for restraint.
“I urge government and opposition stakeholders to work together in a spirit of open and inclusive dialogue,” Obasanjo said. “Police and security forces and political party supporters should exercise restraint and avoid unnecessary confrontations.”
Besigye has now lost four consecutive presidential elections. Each time he has cried foul and each time street protests against his defeat have been swiftly crushed by security forces.
Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, hailed his victory, and dismissed Besigye’s complaints and the concerns of observer groups who have criticised the election as unfair.
“The opposition are not leaders, they are just demagogues, liars, just talking, talking,” the 71-year old said on Sunday.
“Those Europeans are not serious,” he said in reference to European Union election observers who said Uganda’s Electoral Commission lacked transparency and that police were heavy-handed in their treatment of the opposition.
