Ugandans are going to the polls this morning, nearing the end of another bloody election cycle and voting amidst an internet blackout, the last minute suspension of NGOs, and the continued detention of former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye.
- •Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, 81, is widely expected to win a new term to extend his four decade-rule, which begun in the years after the fraught coalition that deposed President Idi Amin in the late 1970s collapsed into a civil war in the 1980s.
- •Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) have maintained a tight grip on almost all facets of Uganda, with the president's son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, heading the country's armed forces.
- •Also on the presidential ballot are seven candidates, with the most prominent being the former musician Robert Kyagulanyi, 43, known popularly by his stage name Bobi Wine.
In addition to a countrywide internet shutdown, Uganda's government also closed down 10 nongovernmental organisations indefinitely. The suspended organizations include human rights, media, and election monitoring organizations.
"The indefinite suspension on vague, unsubstantiated grounds of organizations whose work promotes civil and political rights, is further evidence of Uganda’s disregard for free speech and freedom of association," Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
This is a developing story.
