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Social media largely inaccessible as Uganda votes

– Results expected Saturday –

Motorbike taxi driver Etima Karim, 35, said he would vote for Besigye.

“He has to change things like health, hospitals and roads,” Karim said, as he waited for a polling station to open in Kampala.

Over 15 million Ugandans are registered to vote, casting ballots in more than 28,000 polling stations for both a president and members of parliament, with 290 seats being contested by candidates from 29 political parties.

Over 150,000 police, soldiers and other security forces have been deployed to ensure tight security, according to election officials.

Polls are due to close at 04pm (1300 GMT) with counting to begin soon after. Initial results are expected as early as Saturday afternoon with the leading candidate requiring more than 50 percent of votes cast to avoid a second round run-off.

Elections in 2006 and 2011 were marred by violent, and occasionally deadly, street protests and the liberal use of tear gas by heavy-handed police. However, apart from an outbreak of violent protests in which one person died on Monday, campaigning was relatively peaceful this time.

Voter turnout has followed a downward trajectory in recent elections with nearly three-quarters of eligible voters casting a ballot in 1996, during the country’s first-ever competitive election, but only three-fifths bothering to turn out in 2011.

Museveni’s share of those votes has also declined but most 2016 polls give him more than the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off. He won his last five-year term in 2011 with 68 percent.

The other main challenger, Amama Mbabazi, a 67-year old former prime minister and ruling party stalwart, accused the Museveni’s National Resistance Movement of planning to stuff ballot boxes even before voting began.

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