KAMPALA, UGANDA: Jan 19, 2026 — The Democratic Front (DF) has officially rejected the outcome of Uganda’s recently concluded Presidential and Parliamentary elections, describing the process as “incredible and unverifiable” due to systemic technical failures and illegal manual voting.
In a scathing press statement released Monday, the DF—a new political party led by former Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga—accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of “irresponsibility” and failing to deliver a credible poll despite a UGX 150 billion investment in new technology.
The centerpiece of the DF’s grievance is what they termed a “widespread failure” of biometric voter verification kits (BVVK).
“The malfunctioning of the Biometric kits rendered the entire electoral process incredible and unverifiable…. The failure of Biometric kits led to delays in many areas by up to 5 hours.” The DF statement reads in part.
The DF party alleges that the failure of biometric kits, rendered the entire process impossible to verify. It further highlights the Massive Delays noting that voting in many areas was delayed by up to five hours, starting as late as 11:00 AM instead of the lawful 7:00 AM.
Voter Suppression: “The EC’s decision to extend voting by only one hour was insufficient, contributing to an estimated voter turnout of below 30%”
Despite fielding mote than 80 candidates for Parliamentary seats, the DF lost miserably with all its flag bearers coming out bruised. Mathias Mpuuga, the Party president, also lost his Parliamentary seat in Nyendo Mukungwe to a National Unity Platform NUP candidate.
Allegations of Illegal Manual Voting
The DF contends that the EC violated its own legal framework by authorizing manual voter verification when the electronic systems failed.
”The legal basis for use of biometric voting outlaws manual voting… where the electronic system fails, elections at that polling station must not go on,” the party stated.
The party further alleged that this shift to manual verification was “fraudulently exploited” to facilitate multiple voting and ballot stuffing in specific “targeted” constituencies where the DF expected wins, including parts of Masaka, Gulu, and Kampala.
Security Forces and “False Declarations”
Beyond technical issues, the DF decried the “blatant involvement” of the military. The party reported that several polling stations were positioned inside army barracks and prisons—such as in Entebbe, Masaka, and Luzira—where polling agents were allegedly denied access.
The statement also flagged “rampant false declarations” by presiding officers, claiming that authentic results were “short-changed” in major cities like Masaka, Gulu, and Jinja to declare losers as winners.
The DF has called for fundamental reforms, including a law criminalizing the false declaration of results and a more transparent verification process for presidential tallying. The party is currently “consulting on steps” to formally challenge the legality of the election results.
