In a pool hall in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, a group of boxers and nightclub bouncers are discussing elections. They were recently taken to meet an army general, who offered them money to wear t-shirts of the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (nrm), and fight rowdy opposition supporters in the streets. The sum was not enough, they thought. Then disappointment turned to fear when a well-known champion boxer who had publicly backed the nrm was gunned down by security agents in the night, amid rumours that he had fallen out with his erstwhile patrons. Politicians view the urban poor with contempt, says a bouncer. “When they see them in the ghetto smoking weed, they think that they are useless,” he complains. “But they come to realise they are useful when it is time for elections.”
Ugandans went to the polls on January 14th, with results due after The Economist had gone to press. Officials will almost certainly declare victory for Yoweri Museveni, who has been president since 1986. But the election has been defined by the rise of Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, a 38-year-old musician and opposition candidate who has faced arrest, obstruction and gunfire on the campaign trail. Like the disgruntled boxers, he spent his youth hustling in the ghetto, sometimes sparring in the ring himself. His popularity brings to the fore generational and class fissures, and the shortcomings of an economic model that has brought growth but few jobs.
