Reggae Star Bobi Wine Battles Ugandan President Museveni in Election Marred by Violence

Ugandan authorities stepped up security patrols and shut down the internet as voting started in a hotly contested election.

The vote pits pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 38, against a man twice his age -- Yoweri Museveni, who’s been in power for 35 years and for three-quarters of Uganda’s youthful population is the only president they’ve known.

The victor will oversee the implementation of about $20 billion of projects, including an oil pipeline, a refinery and other infrastructure as the East African nation prepares to become a crude exporter by 2024. A contested outcome that sparks civil unrest could jeopardize those investments and derail efforts to revive the coronavirus-battered economy.

Long queues snaked around polling stations from as early as 6 a.m in the capital, Kampala. There are more than 18 million registered voters in the nation of about 45 million people.

“I was at the polling station at 6 a.m. because I anticipated a high turnout,” Emma Bagoole, a 50-year-old real-estate broker in Kiwatule, a suburb of Kampala, said after casting his vote. “The mood leading to these elections was charged, and I didn’t want to miss out on voting.”

Armored-personnel carriers, police and soldiers patrolled the streets of Kampala, in operations they said were aimed at thwarting any unrest.

The lead-up to the poll has been marred by violence. At least 54 people died in protests that erupted after Bobi Wine’s arrest in November. The government has also clamped down on social-media platforms after Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. both announced they’ve blocked accounts suspected of belonging to state actors.

MTN Uganda Ltd. said it received a directive from the Uganda Communications Commission to suspend all internet gateways and associated access points from 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

“MTN Uganda in compliance with its national telecommunication operator license, and in accordance to MTN’s group-wide digital human-rights due diligence framework, has implemented the directive,” spokeswoman Rhona Arinaitwe said in a statement.

The internet outage has raised concerns about accountability during the election, according to Godber Tumushabe, an associate director at the Kampala-based Great Lakes Institute of Strategic Studies. “The internet blackout means there is an absolute lack of transparency,” he said.

Museveni has been in power since a 1986 coup and lawmakers have changed the nation’s constitution twice to enable him to keep running. While his share of the vote dropped to 61% in the last election in 2016, from 74% in 1996, his popularity in rural areas and among older citizens is expected to help him extend his rule.

Results are expected within 48 hours after balloting ends at 4 p.m.

AUTHOR: Fred Ojambo

VIDEO: Marc Daniel Davies

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.

To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.

Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake

Connect with us on…

Breaking News on YouTube