Soldiers patrol outside presidential challenger Bobi Wine’s home in Magere, Kampala, Uganda, Jan. 16, after President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of the election.

Nicholas Bamulanzeki/AP

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Nicholas Bamulanzeki/AP

Soldiers patrol outside presidential challenger Bobi Wine’s home in Magere, Kampala, Uganda, Jan. 16, after President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of the election.

Nicholas Bamulanzeki/AP

A Uganda judge has ordered state security forces, who have kept the losing presidential candidate Bobi Wine detained in his home since mid-January, to stop surrounding Wine’s residence.

Wine, 38, a popular singer whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was the main opposition candidate in the Jan. 14 presidential election. President Yoweri Museveni was reelected to a sixth term, winning 58% of the vote to Wine’s 34%, according to election officials. Wine disputes the results.

The court ruled that Wine’s effective house arrest was not in accordance with the law and that if the government wants him detained it should charge him with a crime, The Associated Press reports from the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

The AP says Museveni’s government has not yet responded to the court order and it’s not clear whether it will obey the ruling. Officials surrounded Wine’s house on Election Day and said he could not leave without a military escort, because he posed a threat to public order.

Museveni, who at 76 is twice Wine’s age, has been president for 35 years. Uganda has never had a peaceful transfer of power since the former colony gained independence from Great Britain in 1962.

NPR East Africa correspondent Eyder Peralta reported from Uganda that in the lead-up to the election…