Uganda police fire tear gas at angry voters

Ugandan police fired tear gas to disperse furious voters in the capital Kampala on Thursday as the election commission apologised for hours-long delays in delivering ballot papers in some areas.

Voting in Uganda's national elections was due to begin at 07:00  (04:00 GMT) but was stalled for several hours in some polling stations in parts of the city and the surrounding Wakiso district, where ballot boxes and papers did not arrive on time.

The capital traditionally shows strong support for the opposition.

"There has been a delay in delivery of polling materials in some parts of Wakiso district and Kampala capital city. 
The Electoral Commission regrets the delay," the commission said in a statement.
"The polling materials have now been delivered to all these places and polling has commenced in most of the places."

Some frustrated voters accused the authorities of deliberately stalling the vote.
"People are quite angry and everybody is believing that there is something wrong behind this because of the way they are delaying things," said Moses Omony, a motorbike taxi driver.

"We know this has been done intentionally," said Marius Nkata, a builder.


The election commission meanwhile appealed for patience, saying it "calls on candidates, their agents and supporters, to be calm and tolerant as always during the polling process."

Social media, including Facebook and Twitter, were largely inaccessible on voting day although Internet-savvy Ugandans dodged the apparent shutdown using virtual private networks.

Government regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission, said the attempted shutdown was for "security reasons" without giving details.