Main Uganda opposition candidate arrested again

The main opposition candidate in Uganda’s presidential election was arrested Friday for the third time in a week, according to media reports.

Police detained Kizza Besigye at the offices of his Forum for Democratic Change party in the capital Kampala, the BBC and Uganda’s New Vision newspaper reported. Police fired tear gas to disperse Besigye’s supporters who gathered near the building.

Kampala Metropolitan Police Acting Commander Andrew Felix Kaweesi told New Vision that Besigye was taken to a police station “under preventive arrest.”

‘We shall detain him until results are announced tomorrow to prevent him from causing civil disobedience,” he said.

Voting began in the east African country — a U.S. ally on security issues — on Thursday and continued in some areas on Friday. Voters complained of long delays at polling stations and there were reports of security forces beating protesters and throwing stun grenades to disperse angry crowds.

Uganda’s electoral commission said the delays were caused by problems with transporting election materials, but some voters accused authorities of deliberately holding up proceedings, AFP reported. "We know this has been done intentionally," Marius Nkata, a construction worker, told the news agency.

With about a quarter of the votes counted, results from the electoral commission showed that President Yoweri Museveni, 71, had won 62% of the vote while Besigye had 33%. The final results are expected Saturday. Eight candidates are running for president. Museveni is seeking a fifth term after 30 years in power.

Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp were blocked Thursday to prevent people "telling lies," Museveni, a former rebel who seized power with his National Resistance Movement party in 1986, said in televised statements. Still, the hashtag  #UgandaDecides trended on Twitter as Ugandans used Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, to bypass the controls.

Besigye was also briefly arrested on Thursday for entering a house to check on allegations that vote-rigging was taking place, his party said. Police said the property was a security facility and accused Besigye of trespassing.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Museveni on Friday on the phone. Kerry “expressed his concern about (Besigye's detention) and harassment of opposition party members during voting and tallying, and he urged President Museveni to rein in the police and security forces.”

"Uganda’s progress depends on adherence to democratic principles in the ongoing election process,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.