Yusra Elbagir

What the fuck is this?

No problem.

Thanks for having me, Ben.

I mean, there was definitely an electricity and nervousness when we arrived.

It could have gone anyway.

And I think people were very aware, one, of what the state was willing to do to prevent any sort of protest action, but also this looming internet shutdown.

So we arrived, say, 48 hours before the shutdown.

But it had been disputed because the government actually came out and said, no, we're not going to be shutting down the internet.

So people then kind of let their guard down.

And then the day before voting, the telecoms ministry government agency put out a note to say that they'd be shutting down the internet.

So there was just this feeling of suffocation and looming doom.

There was definitely a sense of dread.

And the people we spoke to, some of them said they wouldn't vote, that there was no point.

They knew that it would be or they felt that it was definitely going to be rigged and that their vote wouldn't matter and that they didn't want to risk their lives to basically cast a ballot that would go uncounted.

So the shift was on the day that the votes were counted.

So we went to a tally center in the center of Kampala that was where the votes were counted, not just announced, that's the National Tally Center, but where actually you could see people declaring the results in different polling stations.

And when we arrived, it was very quiet.

We were told it was lunchtime.

And we were actually like, what are we going to film here?

Everyone's having food and drinking coffee.