20110227
reuters

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandans cheering skywards as a yellow plane circles and blares out President Yoweri Museveni's popular rap single are sure an opposition call to protest against his election win is ridiculous.

Tens of thousands of supporters of one of Africa's longest-serving leaders streamed into an airstrip in the capital Kampala on Friday to celebrate his disputed poll victory.

Uganda, and especially Kampala, has been flung into uncertainty by a call for peaceful protests from Museveni's main rival Kizza Besigye, who polled just 26 percent of the vote against the 25-year veteran leader's 68 percent.

The victory rally took place amid heavy security a day after Besigye made the call, flanked by two other opposition leaders.

But protests have yet to erupt and some analysts think Besigye is losing momentum. Others say protests, unlikely to remain peaceful, may break out.

"Protests are a stupid idea. Museveni won the election and now Besigye wants what? War?" Joshua Mugarura, 27, said, wearing a T-shirt depicting Museveni, 67, as U.S. action hero Rambo.

Besigye, who has repeatedly said Uganda is ripe for a North African-style uprising, says last week's presidential and parliamentary polls should be rerun because of widespread bribery, ballot stuffing and intimidation.

The plane flying around Kampala, playing the rap single Museveni released to appeal to the young electorate, is indicative, critics say, of the biggest election campaign spend in Ugandan history.