Five hours after voting was scheduled to start, some polling stations in the capital, Kampala, still had not received any voting papers. People had formed long lines and ballot boxes had arrived by mid-morning, but by noon there were still no ballots.
President Yoweri Museveni faces a strong challenge from Kizza Besigye, who has called Museveni a dictator and said he doubted voting would be free or fair.
Some ballot boxes had missing lids. “We are late simply because the lids for ballot boxes are not here. The boxes and the lids should have arrived at the same time,” said Moses Omo, an official presiding over voting at a Catholic church in the central Ugandan district of Wakiso.
Many of those waiting said they would not leave without voting. “This is very disappointing, but I am going to stay here under the sun until it is my turn to vote,” said Fred Mubiru, a taxi driver. “Nothing will discourage me.”
Although opinion polls had shown Museveni to be ahead of his opponents, analysts expect this election to be his toughest yet, citing the massive crowds Besigye attracted across the country, AP reported.
Museveni, 71, remains popular in some parts of rural Uganda, where he is seen as a father figure and is beloved by those who remember his time as a guerrilla leader fighting a dictatorship.
He came to power in 1986 and pulled Uganda out of years of chaos. He is widely credited with restoring peace and presiding over economic growth, and is a key US ally on security matters, especially in Somalia. But his critics worry that he may want to rule for life, and accuse him of using the security forces to intimidate the opposition.
Besigye, 59, is running for the fourth time against Museveni. He campaigned on a promise to run a more effective government, vowing to stem official corruption. He said he would continue “the struggle” in other ways if he lost the election, suggesting a protest movement similar to the one that followed the last election in 2011. That movement was violently put down by security forces.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said a weak “human rights situation seriously undermines the prospects of free and fair elections and the ability of Ugandans to exercise fundamental human rights such as free expression, assembly, and association”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has also reported “a worsening pattern of harassment and intimidation of journalists” in Uganda.
There has been a heavy security presence in Kampala in the run-up to the polls, with armed police patrolling the streets and armoured vehicles stationed at key junctions.