Internet ‘blackout’ in Uganda on eve of tense election

KAMPALA, Uganda — Ugandan authorities appeared to cut off internet access in the country Wednesday night on the eve of a tense presidential election, while a lawyer for leading opposition candidate Bobi Wine said all contact had been lost with him.

“Confirmed: Uganda is now in the midst of a nation-scale internet blackout,” watchdog NetBlocks said in a statement, saying connectivity levels had dropped to 33 percent of usual levels. Ugandans using leading internet service providers MTN and Airtel said they could no longer get online.

The U.S.-based counsel for Wine, Bruce Afran, told reporters that the candidate “is now in his compound with his wife and a single staff member who is unarmed and is not security personnel . . . Security and police are stationed outside his home and effectively encircled it.”

Afran said he feared Wine, a popular young singer and lawmaker, will once again be arrested, and he warned that “we’re going to see protests on the streets” if they believe longtime President Yoweri Museveni is declared the winner of Thursday’s vote because of fraud.

Wine, 38, has captured the imagination of many at home and abroad in his generational clash with the 76-year-old Museveni, who has rebuffed calls for his retirement after 34 years in power.

Hundreds of staffers for Wine’s party are in detention, Afran said, saying “we believe this portends a a significant attempt at vote-rigging.”