KAMPALA, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Ugandan authorities partially restored internet services late on Saturday after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term to extend his rule into a fifth decade with a landslide victory rejected by the opposition.
Users reported being able to reconnect to the internet around 11 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Saturday and some internet service providers sent out a message to customers saying the regulator had ordered them to restore services excluding social media.
“We have restored internet so that businesses that rely on internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies told Reuters. He added the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
State-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off internet to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.” The opposition, however, criticised the move saying it was to cement control over the electoral process and guarantee a win for the incumbent.
UCC spokesperson Ibrahim Bbosa did not respond to a Reuters’ call for comment.
The electoral body in the east African country on Saturday declared Museveni the winner of Thursday’s poll with 71.6% of the vote while his rival pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was credited with 24% of the vote.
A joint report from an election observer team from the African Union and other regional blocs criticised the involvement of the military in the election and authorities’ decision to cut off internet.
“The internet shut down implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities…it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report published on Saturday.
In power since 1986 and currently Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, Museveni’s latest win means he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
He is widely thought to be preparing his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to take over from him. Kainerugaba is currently head of the military and has expressed presidential ambitions.
Wine, who was taking on Museveni for a second time, has rejected the results of the latest vote and alleged mass fraud during the election.
Scattered opposition protests broke out late on Saturday after results were announced, according to a Reuters witness and police.
In Magere, a suburb in Kampala’s north where Wine lives, a group of youths burned tyres and erected barricades in the road prompting police to respond with tear gas.
Police spokesperson Racheal Kawala told Reuters the protests had been quashed and that arrests were made but said the number of those detained would be released later.
Wine’s whereabouts were unknown early on Sunday after he said in a post on X he had escaped a raid by the military on his home. People close to him told Reuters on Saturday he remained at an undisclosed location in Uganda. Wine was briefly held under house arrest following the previous election in 2021.
Wine has said hundreds of his supporters were detained during the months leading up to the vote and that others have been tortured.
Government officials have denied those allegations and say those who have been detained have violated the law and will be put through due process.
(Editing by Jessica Donati and Elaine Hardcastle)
