Uganda blocks most of the social media for President swearing-in!

By Ajay Kadkol - 17 May '16 10:33AM
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Now, the country will not see a new president. Not sure why but almost the whole African continent likes to see the same soul in the same designation every time and this time it's no different. Now, apparently it seems that the Ugandan government doesn't want people talking about its election or its future president certainly not online at any cost involved.

The nation's government in a decision undertaken by the committee have now decided that most social media access would be blocked which would affect Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for the second time in three months on Wednesday and Thursday, as President Yoweri Museveni was sworn in for his 5th consecutive term. Museveni, who first became president in 1986, won reelection in February with around 60% of the vote, well ahead of the 35% won by his nearest challenger.

Many people inside the nation assume or even firmly believe that the election was completely rigged for Museveni from the start of the election process itself. Areas with strong opposition movements weren't able to vote until late on election day, because election materials reportedly didn't show up in the morning. Former Prime Minister who fetched just about 1.4% of the vote likely alleged that vote counters initiating counting tallies were completely in favor of Museveni by filling out voter forms for the president and making up final vote counts. Tensions quickly gathered up after the election results were in as the leading contender was detained and the government cut access to social media. That access was again gone for several hours on Thursday and weren't restored accordingly

Restricting social media seems to be likely causes in most of the nations after all which obviously fall into a pattern observed by the Ugandan government which made the move to increasingly limit the country's ability to discuss about the opposition to the current president. Earlier this month the government had also banned the press from covering election protests. Journalists in the country were also assaulted while covering the election process according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. During his swearing-in ceremony, the president promised to fight corruption.

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