Uganda Polls: No Internet, No Mobile Money, Failed Biometrics as Military Flood Streets like Bees.

Kampala, January 15 – As Ugandans lined up across the country on Thursday morning to cast their ballots in presidential and parliamentary elections, many found themselves waiting for long hours. By mid-morning, voting had not begun in large parts of the country, with widespread reports of malfunctioning biometric voter verification machines, missing polling materials, heavy military deployment, and a nationwide internet shutdown combining to paralyse the process.

Across Kampala, Masaka, Mbarara, Gulu City, Arua, Kakumiro, Rubanda District West and several other locations, voters stood in long queues with no clear information on when they would be able to cast their ballots. With no internet access, no mobile money services, and limited official communication, voters were left in what one observer described as “digital darkness,” as soldiers and police patrols moved through towns and cities in unusually high numbers. The atmosphere at several polling centres was tense and confused, marked by long queues, stranded voters, and election officials unable to explain when or if voting would begin.

At Wabigalo Community Centre polling station, voting was delayed after election materials and equipment failed to arrive on time. In Kalisizo, video footage showed all polling stations affected by non-functional biometric machines, with no voting underway by 10:30 a.m. “Nothing is working,” one observer said in the footage, as voters waited without guidance from election officials.

Similar scenes played out at Makindye Grounds (Officer’s Mess), where more than five polling stations were squeezed into a single location. By mid-morning, balloting had not started, with officials citing failures in the biometric verification system and delays in the delivery of materials. Observers estimated that by that time, voting had yet to commence in nearly a third of polling stations nationwide.

In Lungujja playground in Kampala, the biometric voter verification machine had not arrived by late morning, delaying the start of voting that was scheduled to start at 7.00am in accordance with electoral laws and guidelines. At Kyanja Muslim Primary School, officials confirmed that the biometric machine was not working. “There is no scanning of the ID or voter slip,” one observer said, raising concerns about how voter verification would later be reconciled during counting.

There were claims that opposition-leaning areas were among the hardest hit. In Kakumiro, polling stations were described by voters and local observers as “paralysed,” with biometric verification machines completely non-functional. Similar failures were observed in Rubanda District West. Across these areas, voters spoke of hours wasted in queues, mounting confusion, and a growing conviction that the right to vote was being deliberately undermined rather than merely delayed.

As frustration mounted, opposition leaders accused authorities of using logistical failures to suppress turnout. “This is a ploy to frustrate voters,” one opposition monitor said, arguing that the delays disproportionately affected areas considered strongholds of President Yoweri Museveni’s main challenger, Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine.

The chaos on polling day came against the backdrop of a nationwide internet shutdown ordered by the Uganda Communications Commission earlier in the week. The directive, which took effect on Tuesday evening, cut access to social media platforms, mobile data, and key online services, leaving voters, journalists, and observers unable to communicate or share real-time information. Mobile money services were also inaccessible, further complicating election-day logistics.

The United Nations Human Rights Office and Amnesty International criticised the shutdown, warning that it restricted freedom of expression, limited access to information, and undermined transparency at a critical democratic moment. Both organisations said shutting down the internet on election day made it difficult to independently verify events on the ground and heightened the risk of abuses going unreported.

It was in this already tense environment that the collapse of the biometric voter verification system introduced a critical twist, one with far-reaching implications for the credibility of the vote.

As reports of non-functional biometric voter verification kits (BVVKs) spread across the country, the Electoral Commission (EC) publicly acknowledged the problem. Addressing the situation, EC chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama said the Commission had directed all returning officers to proceed with voting using the National Voter’s Register in areas where biometric kits failed to start or function.

“Where a biometric voter verification kit fails to start or to function, the voting process should commence immediately using the National Voter’s Register, in accordance with the electoral laws and guidelines, so as not to disenfranchise any voter,” Justice Byabakama said.

He added that the Commission’s technical teams had been deployed to respond to reported challenges and insisted that polling should proceed even where biometric verification was not possible. “In order not to waste time, we directed that polling proceeds even in areas where these problems were reported,” he said, noting that manual verification was being used in some polling stations while technical teams continued their work.

On its face, the directive appeared administrative and pragmatic. Yet for many Ugandans already skeptical of the electoral process, it carried a far more troubling implication: the election was now being conducted using a voters’ register whose integrity had been contested for months — and whose scrutiny had effectively been criminalised.

Under Uganda’s electoral law, the voters’ register is not merely an operational tool but a foundational legal safeguard. The Electoral Commission Act (Section 19) obliges the Commission to compile, update, and avail an accessible voters’ register to candidates and political parties within clearly defined timelines ahead of polling day, precisely to allow scrutiny, verification, and the resolution of disputes before voting begins.

Yet in the weeks leading up to the election, opposition parties and civil society organisations repeatedly complained that the Commission failed to provide the complete updated hard-copy photo voters’ register within the legally stipulated timeframe. The National Unity Platform (NUP) formally warned the Commission that without timely access to the register, it was impossible to verify voter distribution, detect duplicate entries, or confirm whether the names of deceased persons had been removed.

In a detailed complaint to the Electoral Commission, NUP alleged that its internal audits had uncovered hundreds of thousands of multiple and fraudulent entries on the register. According to the party, some voters appeared to be registered two or three times at different polling stations, often within close proximity, a pattern NUP said could enable multiple voting. The party also claimed that the register contained entries for long-deceased individuals and, in some instances, fictitious names, including records bearing placeholder names such as “X”.

NUP further alleged that while it formally raised these concerns and requested corrective action, the final physical copies of the voters’ register were deliberately released late, limiting meaningful verification. The party said that despite the delay, the disputed entries remained in the final version of the register used on polling day.

“The blame should not fall on individual voters,” the party noted in its complaint, arguing that many affected persons may be unaware that ghost voters are being used in their names. NUP concluded that without a credible and verifiable register, the integrity of the entire electoral process is fundamentally compromised, warning that a free and fair election begins and can fail with the voters’ register.

Human rights organisations echoed these concerns, warning that proceeding to an election without full access to the register undermined transparency and opened the door to disputes over legitimacy. They noted that in previous Ugandan elections, contested results were often traced back to unresolved questions about voter rolls and tallying processes.

The Electoral Commission denied wrongdoing. Justice Byabakama dismissed claims of irregularities as politically motivated, arguing that alleged duplicate names often referred to different individuals with similar details. He maintained that the register had been displayed for public inspection.

However, independent election observers pointed out that public inspection at polling stations is not the same as independent verification, especially in a national election involving tens of thousands of polling stations. Individual voters can only check their own names, they argued, while systemic irregularities require access to full datasets and time for analysis.

Concerns over the voters’ register took on a more ominous dimension with the arrest of Dr. Sarah Bireete, one of Uganda’s most respected election governance experts. On 30 December 2025, security forces raided Bireete’s home in Kampala and took her into custody. She was later charged at the Buganda Road Magistrates Court with unlawfully accessing and disclosing personal data from the national voters’ register, under the Data Protection and Privacy Act.

Bireete, the Executive Director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance, also serves as Chair of the East and Horn of Africa Election Observers Network (E-HORN) and the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM). Her arrest sent shockwaves through regional and international election-monitoring communities.

Her lawyers and civil society groups argue that the charges criminalise legitimate election oversight and public discourse. They maintain that Bireete did not hack or illegally obtain data but analysed information in the public interest, raising concerns that fall squarely within the role of an election monitor. At the time of voting, she remained in detention, with her bail hearing scheduled after election day.

Human Rights Watch and other international organisations criticised the arrest, warning that it sent a chilling signal to civic actors and effectively discouraged scrutiny of the very systems now being relied upon after the biometric collapse.

A breakdown with regional implications

The reliance on a disputed register following the failure of biometric systems has raised alarms not only within Uganda but across East Africa, where flawed voter rolls have contributed to prolonged electoral crises in countries such as Kenya and Malawi.

Regional observers note that biometric systems are meant to enhance credibility precisely by limiting discretion and manipulation. When those systems fail and are replaced by manual processes based on an unverified register, the risk of disputes increases sharply.

Social justice activist Aloikin Apoloje described the situation bluntly. “At most of the polling stations, BVVK machines are not working. They have resorted to manual registers. Such inconsistencies should not be treated as coincidental,” he said.

Others went further, alleging high-level interference. “The machines have been messed with at a high level,” one opposition figure said, calling the failure a national security breach and demanding accountability for billions spent on the biometric system.

The voting delays unfolded amid reports of abductions and arrests targeting opposition figures. Late Wednesday night, John Mary Ssebuwufu, NUP’s Buganda election in-charge, was forcibly taken from party headquarters in Kampala while overseeing election preparations. His wife confirmed the abduction, saying he was taken by unidentified operatives. By mid-morning Thursday, his whereabouts remained unknown.

NUP described the incident as part of a broader effort to disrupt opposition coordination on election day. Heavy deployment of police and military personnel across urban centres reinforced fears of intimidation among voters.

Despite widespread delays and technical failures, Bobi Wine cast his vote at 11:00 a.m., accompanied by his wife, Barbie Itungo Kyagulanyi, as supporters urged Ugandans to remain patient and turn out despite the obstacles.

Meanwhile, the NRM presidential candidate, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, voted at Karo High School polling station at 11:35 a.m. in Rwakitura, his home district and a long-standing political stronghold in Kiruhura.

Speaking to reporters, Museveni defended the use of biometric voter verification machines, claiming they were operational but suggesting voter skepticism had affected their use. “These biometric machines are working, but some people feared them and did not want them to function,” he said.

Museveni further justified the adoption of biometric voting by pointing to alleged irregularities in previous elections. “In the last election, the opposition infiltrated about 2.7 million votes — around 1 million printed on Nkrumah Road and another 1.7 million from Dubai. It is on this basis that the decision was made to adopt biometric voting,” he stated

The AU–COMESA–IGAD Election Observation Mission, which deployed observers across multiple regions ahead of the vote, said it was monitoring voting, counting, and results management in line with regional and continental democratic standards. The mission said its presence aimed to support a peaceful, transparent, and credible process, even as conditions on the ground remained fluid and challenging.