Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has taken a significant early lead in the presidential race, according to preliminary results released by the electoral commission on Friday morning.

President Museveni has garnered 1,536,205 votes (65.02%), while his main rival Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has 647,146 votes (27.39%) from 8,310 polling stations.

The country has a total of 34,684 polling stations.

Bobi Wine has alleged there was widespread fraud and violence during Thursday's poll but gave no details of his accusations.

Uganda's government has described the election as peaceful.