Uganda was on edge as polls opened on Thursday, with President Yoweri Museveni expected to extend his 40-year rule amid an internet shutdown and a police crackdown on the opposition.
Polling stations were slow to open, as normal in Uganda, but voting was underway shortly after 7am local time in at least one Kampala suburb.
But in several parts of Uganda stations were still not open almost two hours after voting was due to start, AFP journalists and local sources said Thursday.
AFP reporters in several parts of the capital Kampala and the border city of Jinja said voting had yet to begin, with reports that ballot papers had not been delivered and biometric machines used to check voters' identities were not working.
There were heavy police and army patrols in the border town of Jinja, another AFP team said.
Meanwhile, despite repeated promises that it would not do so, the government shut down the internet on Tuesday for an indefinite period to prevent the spread of "misinformation" and "incitement to violence".
The United Nations called the shutdown "deeply worrying".
'I will crush them'
Western countries have often given Museveni leeway, after he swallowed their demands for neoliberal reforms in the 1980s and made himself a useful partner in the US-led "war on terror" in the 2000s, especially through troop contributions to Somalia.
Many Ugandans still praise him as the man who ended the country's post-independence chaos and oversaw rapid economic growth, even if much was lost to a relentless string of massive corruption scandals.
"Forty years doesn't even matter, we need even more," said one supporter, Banura Oliver, 41, on her way to Museveni's final rally in Kampala.
The president struck a forceful tone, saying: "Go and vote. Anybody who wants to interfere with your freedom, I will crush them."
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Many in Kampala were nervous as security forces beefed up their presence for election day.
"We will not talk about elections. You can ask anything but not that," said an accountant in his thirties, who did not give his name.
The police warned the vote was "not a justification for criminal acts" and has deployed newly hired "special constables" to enforce order.
Journalists were harassed and blocked from attending Museveni's rally.
Reporters Without Borders said local journalist Ssematimba Bwegiire lost consciousness after being electrocuted and pepper-sprayed by a security officer at a Wine rally.
Human Rights Watch has denounced the suspension of 10 NGOs, including election-monitoring organisations, and said the opposition had faced "brutal repression".
(with newswires)
