Uganda votes under internet blackout and police crackdown

A Ugandan police officer monitors the area while guarding ballot boxes and other electoral materials for dispatch at a polling station serving as a dispatch centre during final preparations ahead of Uganda's 2026 general elections, in Kampala on January 14, 2026. [AFP] Uganda was on edge as polls opened on Thursday, with President Yoweri Museveni expected to extend his 40-year rule amid an internet shutdown and a police crackdown on the opposition. The local Daily Monitor newspaper ran a full-page spread on how to "election-proof your home", advising citizens to reinforce doors and windows and designate a safe-room in case of unrest. It is a familiar feeling for Ugandans after four decades of rule by Museveni, 81, a former bush fighter steeped in the ideology of revolutionary violence, whose tenure has been marked by accusations of rampant security force abuses against his opponents. He has faced a concerted challenge from singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43, who styles himself the "ghetto president", after his stronghold in a slum where he grew up in the capital, Kampala. Polling stations were slow to open, as normal in Uganda, but voting was underway shortly after 7am (0400 GMT) in at least one Kampala suburb, AFP journalists saw. There were heavy police and army patrols in the border town of Jinja, another AFP team said. As with his 2021 campaign, hundreds of Wine's supporters have been arrested in the run-up to the vote. He has taken to wearing a flak jacket at rallies, describing the election as a "war" and Museveni as a "military dictator". "We are very aware that they are planning to rig the election, to brutalise people, to kill people, and they don't want the rest of the world to see," Wine told AFP. Despite repeated promises that it would not do so, the government shut down the internet on Tuesday for an indefinite period to prevent the spread of "misinformation" and "incitement to violence". The United Nations called the shutdown "deeply worrying". Wine has vowed protests if the vote is rigged. The other major opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, who ran four times against Museveni, was abducted in Kenya in 2024 and brought back to a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is ongoing. His wife, UNAIDS director Winnie Byanyima, said Uganda has only a "thin veneer" of democracy, with a "total capture of state institutions" by the president. 'I will crush them' Western countries have often given Museveni leeway, after he swallowed their demands for neoliberal reforms in the 1980s and made himself a useful partner in the US-led "war on terror" in the 2000s, especially through troop contributions to Somalia. Many Ugandans still praise him as the man who ended the country's post-independence chaos and oversaw rapid economic growth, even if much was lost to a relentless string of massive corruption scandals. "Forty years doesn't even matter, we need even more," said one supporter, Banura Oliver, 41, on her way to Museveni's final rally in Kampala. The president struck a forceful tone, saying, "Go and vote. Anybody who wants to interfere with your freedom, I will crush them." Many in Kampala were nervous as security forces beefed up their presence for election day. "We will not talk about elections. You can ask anything but not that," said an accountant in his thirties, who did not give his name. The police warned the vote was "not a justification for criminal acts" and has deployed newly hired "special constables" to enforce order. Journalists were harassed and blocked from attending Museveni's rally. Reporters Without Borders said local journalist Ssematimba Bwegiire lost consciousness after being electrocuted and pepper-sprayed by a security officer at a Wine rally. Human Rights Watch has denounced the suspension of 10 NGOs, including election-monitoring organisations, and said the opposition had faced "brutal repression".

Uganda votes under internet blackout and police crackdown

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