Ugandan authorities partially restored internet services late on Saturday after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won 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 internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies told Reuters.
He added the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
State-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off 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.
UCC spokesperson Ibrahim Bbosa did not respond to a Reuters’ call for comment.
Meanwhile, Uganda authorities said Sunday it would maintain a ban on social media platforms, while lifting a nationwide internet block hours after longtime ruler Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of national elections.












