KAMPALA, (Reuters) – The man hoping to break Yoweri Museveni’s 30-year grip on Uganda’s presidency was briefly arrested yesterday and the government shut down social media sites as voters cast their ballots under the gaze of police and soldiers in riot gear.
Opposition officials said Kizza Besigye was arrested at dusk on polling day and held for about 30 minutes in the capital Kampala, but despite the tough security there were no reported flare ups of violence.
All sides accuse each other of stoking tensions and assembling vigilante groups to intimidate rival candidates, and the leading opposition contenders predicted vote rigging in the ballot that Museveni is widely expected to win.
“Such a day is highly undermined by the lack of free and fair elections,” Besigye, 59, told reporters in the village of Rukungiri in western Uganda.
Washington condemned his arrest, with State Department spokesman John Kirby saying it called into question Uganda’s commitment to a transparent election, free from intimidation.
Citing security concerns, Godfrey Mutabazi, the head of the Ugandan Communications Commission, told Reuters authorities had blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp services.
Press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists said: “Such censorship undermines the democratic process.”
Museveni, 71, came to power in 1986 after waging a five-year guerrilla war and many Ugandans credit him with providing relative peace and economic stability. He is a staunch U.S. ally, and Ugandan soldiers lead an African Union peacekeeping force against Islamist insurgents in Somalia.
After voting, Museveni warned anyone fuelling unrest would face Uganda’s security apparatus.
