Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni seeks re-election to extend rule to four decades

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is seeking re-election and this would potentially extend the 75-year-old former rebel fighter’s rule to four decades.

Museveni’s party said on Tuesday, July 21, that Uganda’s long-serving President has collected papers to seek nomination as the ruling party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election.

“Yes, we can confirm he has picked nomination forms for our flagbearer position,” Rogers Mulindwa, spokesman for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), told Reuters, adding that no-one else had yet shown up to contest him within the party.

Though no date has yet been fixed for the 2021 vote, it is typically held in February. The strongest opposition presidential aspirant is pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine, 38.

Critics complain Museveni has been using anti-coronavirus measures like bans on public gatherings to secure an advantage and hinder preparations by opponents.

In power since 1986, Museveni’s tenure is only surpassed in Africa by Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, who has ruled since 1979 and Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who has ruled since 1982.