Polls open in Uganda amid crackdown, fears of violence, internet blackout
Al Jazeera
UN Human Rights Office has stressed ‘open access to communication & information is key to free & genuine elections’.
Uganda is on edge as polls have opened, with President Yoweri Museveni expected to extend his four-decade rule amid a police crackdown on the opposition, fears of violence and an internet shutdown.
The East African nation is holding a contentious general election on Thursday after a Ugandan government regulatory body instructed mobile network operators to block public internet access, starting on Tuesday evening.
Polling stations were slow to open, as is usual in Uganda, but voting was under way shortly after 7am (04:00 GMT) in at least one Kampala suburb, AFP news agency journalists saw. There were heavy police and army patrols in the border town of Jinja, another AFP team said.
Partial results are expected later in the day after polls close.
More than 21.6 million voters have registered for the election. In a country where 70 percent of people are under age 35, high unemployment is a key issue for first-time voters.
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