In what seems like an extension of an already forty years’ tenure, the executive committee of Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement has endorsed President Yoweri Museveni as its candidate in the next presidential election due in 2021.
The opposition and rights groups say Museveni has maintained his grip on power through a mix of electoral fraud, violent clamp down on the opposition, suppression of dissent and deft co-opting of some of the opponents.
His backers however deny that and say he has remained popular because of vigorous economic expansion, political stability and infrastructure construction under his rule.
In 2017, parliament which is controlled by the ruling party, voted to remove a seventy-five-year age cap on the presidency that would have barred him from standing again. It was the second time parliament changed laws to clear the way for him to extending his.
Yoweri Museveni, 74, has held office since 1986 when he took power after a five-year guerrilla war, making him one of Africa’s longest-ruling leaders.
