Supporters of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni canvas for votes in Kampala, Uganda, Tuesday. Eight presidential candidates, including Museveni and Bobi Wine, are vying for the presidency in Uganda. Museveni seeks a seventh term after four decades in power. Photo by Isaac Kasamani/EPA
Jan. 14 (UPI) — Communications authorities blocked Internet service throughout the country ahead of its national elections to prevent “weaponization of the Internet.”
President Yoweri Museveni, 81, is seeking his seventh term after ruling the country since 1986. He is expected to beat his main challenger, Bobi Wine, a pop singer with a young following.
Nyombi Thembo, head of the Uganda Communications Commission, said people “wanted to start using the Internet to promote hate speech,” and that he didn’t know when it would be back, The New York Times reported.
Museveni’s critics say cutting the Internet was a way to prevent a protest organization if Wine loses Thursday’s election.
Wine, 43, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, accused the electoral commission of vote rigging in an interview with The Times. He said he was running as a protest vote.
“I told the people of Uganda, they see me beaten, they see me cry, they’ll see me broken, but they’ll never see me give up,” he told The Times. He was beaten and detained when he ran for president in 2021.
Earlier this month, the UCC said reports of an Internet blackout were “mere rumors,” the BBC reported. It said the commission’s job was to secure uninterrupted connectivity. In the 2021 election, there were widespread protests in which dozens were killed. The Internet was out for a week.
The UCC’s letter to mobile phone companies said: “This temporary suspension is a precautionary intervention to ensure peace, protect national stability and prevent the misuse of communication platforms during a sensitive national exercise,” the BBC reported.