Uganda’s long-time leader takes lead in provisional results

She said Besigye’s supporters resisted the police, who took positions outside the headquarters of the Forum for Democratic Change party. On Monday, one person was killed and 19 wounded when he was briefly detained and his supporters erected barricades and hurled rocks at the police, who responded by firing bullets and teargas.

Museveni’s other major challenger, former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, was a close ally of the president until a power struggle past year. A top global election observer called the delays “worrying”.

According to the Electoral Commission, the final result of the election is expected on Saturday. Godfrey Mutabazi of Uganda’s communications ministry said Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites crashed because they were overwhelmed by traffic of users discussing the election.

Voting in most polling stations closed at 1600 local time (1300 GMT) but in some areas it was extended to 1900 local time (1600 GMT) due to delays.

President Yoweri Museveni in a line at Kaaro High School ticking his ballot paper.

Nanteza Beatrice, 56, a fruit vendor in a Kampala market, said she believes Uganda is not ready for a post-Museveni era.

“Such a day is highly undermined by the lack of free and fair elections”, opposition candidate Kizza Besigye said as he voted in the village of Rukungiri in western Uganda.

Mr Besigye has said he does not think the election will be free and fair.

“Why is it that in areas where we enjoy massive support, like Kampala and Wakiso, that’s where these things are happening?” The earliest provisional results by the electoral commission put Museveni in the lead at around 67 percent and Besigye is in second at around 32 percent.

Many young people want change but lack the means to push for it. “The problem is the lack of economic empowerment for the youth”.

Some of the African leaders once seen by Washington as a hopeful new generation of democrats – including Museveni and President Paul Kagame in neighboring Rwanda – have turned out to be as bad as the old guard of Africa’s “Big Men” who ruled for life. “Delays of three, four, five and even six hours, especially in Kampala, are absolutely inexcusable and will not inspire trust and confidence in the system and the process”, Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the Commonwealth Observer Group in Uganda, told AFP.

Museveni said security forces would deal with those who threaten violence during and after the election.

Millions of Ugandans are going to the polls on Thursday in presidential, parliamentary and local elections. Many waited under the hot sun at polling stations that were still not functioning at mid-day.

Motorbike taxi driver Etima Karim, 35, said he would vote for Besigye. “Nothing will discourage me”.

Museveni, 71, took power by force in 1986 and pulled Uganda out of years of chaos.

Opposition politicians and global rights groups have accused Museveni of curtailing free speech and using an armed ruling-party youth group to intimidate the opposition ahead of the vote. Mr. Besigye was President Museveni’s personal physician, and has unsuccessfully run for president three times. He promised a more effective government, vowing to stem official corruption.