[JURIST] Kizza Besigye [BBC profile, JURIST news archive], the recently defeated presidential candidate in Uganda [JURIST news archive], has asked the Ugandan Supreme Court [official website] to order a new presidential election, saying results from the February 23 election [JURIST report] were unreliable due to fraud, violence and bribery. Besigye blamed the Ugandan Electoral Commission [official website] for fraudulent vote tallies [JURIST report] in his petition to the court Wednesday, saying they deleted names from the vote register and allowed multiple voting and ballot stuffing during the election. The vote resulted in a reelection of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [BBC profile], who has ruled the country for 20 years.

Besigye contends that his supporters [Forum for Democratic Change website] counted ballots showing that he had 49 percent of the winning vote and that Museveni had 47 percent. In order to avoid a run-off, Ugandan electoral rules indicate that a candidate only needs a simple majority. AP has more.