Uganda: authorities shut down internet hours before polling stations open

Uganda is currently facing a countrywide internet blockage but the country again faces a big question of transition when it goes to the presidential polls on Thursday. A generational battle on the ballot is expected when pop star turned politician Bobi Wine seeks to mount a successful challenge against President Yoweri Museveni. Our correspondent Darren Allan Kyeyune reports.

Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, has chosen no easy task by taking on Uganda's long-term leader, Yoweri Museveni, for a second time.

The 81-year-old president may be facing six other challengers but he still has trust from some voters when it comes to reforming the country's economy and his leadership. More importantly, Museveni also remains backed by his regime, built over the past four decades and also founded on limitations to freedom of speech and political opposition.

Just a few hours before the polling stations are set to open this Thursday, the country has been plunged into an internet shutdown. The authorities and electoral commission justified this step with the intention to curb "misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks".

Bobi Wine has however shown himself undeterred in the face of this obstacle in the last hours of his campaign. He has called upon his supporters to protest, counting on a young electorate to vote for a candidate like him rather than the 81-year-old incumbent president.