Ugandan authorities late on Saturday partially restored internet services after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won for a seventh term to extend his rule into a fifth decade with a landslide victory rejected by the opposition.
Users reported being able to reconnect to the internet around 11 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Saturday, and some internet service providers sent out a message to customers saying the regulator had ordered them to restore services excluding social media.
“We have restored internet so that businesses that rely on the internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda (AIRTEL.UG), one of the country’s biggest telecom companies said.
He added that the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
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State-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off the internet to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud, and related risks.” The opposition, however, criticised the move saying it was to cement control over the electoral process and guarantee a win for the incumbent.
The electoral body in the East African country on Saturday declared Museveni the winner of Thursday’s poll with 71.6% of the vote while his rival pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was credited with 24% of the vote.
A joint report from an election observer team from the African Union and other regional blocs criticised the involvement of the military in the election and the authorities’ decision to cut off the internet.
“The internet shut down implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities…it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report published on Saturday.
In power since 1986 and currently Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, Museveni’s latest win means he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
Reuters/Shakirat Sadiq