Vote counting continued in the country’s tumultuous elections.
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“The United States condemns the detention of opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye while voting is going on”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Riot police lobbed tear gas and stun grenades at them and fired warning shots from automatic rifles, then chased them through narrow alleys, arresting some.
With Kampala traditionally being an opposition stronghold and with many sceptical over the impartiality of an Electoral Commission run by a chairman who has presided over two previous controversial victories for Museveni, some see sabotage rather than incompetence in the election day chaos. “It is worth noting that every time that Besigye is arrested there are more journalists than policemen”, NRM spokesman Mike Sebaulu said. Angry protesters also built barricades of stones on the highway leading to the global airport.
In some areas of Kampala, anger over delays spilled into the streets.
Electoral agents at a polling station in the Luzira suburb of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, discuss procedures before polls open for presidential and parliamentary elections.
Many Ugandans also complained of a shutdown of social media including WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, which Museveni said was because people “misuse them, telling lies.” Social media sites have been inaccessible for many people as authorities restricted the Internet for “security reasons”.
A senior official at Mr Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change said he was arrested on Thursday while attempting to investigate reports of vote tampering. Police said the house was a security facility, and accused Besigye of trespassing on government property.
Washington condemned his arrest, saying it called into question whether the election could be considered free.
With results from about 47 percent of polling stations across the country counted, Museveni had about 63 percent of the vote and Besigye had about 33 percent, the election commission said late Friday. Election workers said they were still waiting for materials to arrive from regional Electoral Commission officials.
The officials were detained because they were heading to announce election results tallied by the opposition and not election officials, Onyango said.
Election results are expected to be released on Saturday Feb. 20.
On Friday morning, voting resumed in a handful of areas, where delays in delivering polling materials had prevented some people from casting their ballot.
He said those who get back on Twitter, for example, have “the feeling that you have overpowered the mighty state”. He won his last five-year term in 2011 with 68%.
He has sent thousands of troops to the ongoing African Union mission in Somalia that is confronting al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group linked to al-Qaeda. His critics worry he may want to rule for life, and accuse him of using security forces to intimidate and harass the opposition.
Besigye was Museveni’s personal physician during a bush war and served as deputy interior minister in Museveni’s first Cabinet.
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Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, has presided over strong economic growth, but faced mounting accusations at home and overseas of cracking down on dissent and failing to tackle corruption.
