KAMPALA — Uganda’s long-serving leader, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has been cleared by the Electoral Commission to contest next year’s presidential election.
Justice Simon Byabakama, chair of the commission, confirmed the president’s nomination on Tuesday morning after reviewing his academic records and paperwork.
Mr Museveni, 81, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, was the first candidate to be officially nominated. He arrived at the commission’s headquarters in Lweza, near Entebbe Road, accompanied by First Lady Janet Museveni and senior government officials.
Speaking after his clearance, the president thanked his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), for handing him the flagbearer position once again. “Where we are moving to now is to convince the people of Uganda about what we have achieved and what we are planning to do in the next term,” he said.
He pointed to economic growth, saying Uganda’s gross domestic product had doubled in recent years. “In the last term, our GDP was $34 billion. It is now $66 billion. To double the GDP in just one term is no mean achievement,” he added.
But Mr Museveni also acknowledged challenges. “There’s peace in the country; there’s some crime, corruption and impunity. The NRM structure should come out and help expose criminals,” he said, pledging to make the fight against corruption and crime a priority if re-elected.
The 2026 election is already shaping up to be contested. Opposition figures including Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine of the National Unity Platform, and Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change, are expected to be nominated on Wednesday. Other lesser-known candidates have also joined the race.
Mr Museveni, who was born in 1944 in Ntungamo District, remains one of the world’s longest-serving heads of state. Raised in a cattle-keeping family, he studied political science and economics at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania before launching his political career.
For nearly four decades, he has dominated Uganda’s political scene. Supporters hail him for bringing stability and economic growth. Critics accuse him of tightening his grip on power and stifling dissent.
With his nomination now confirmed, Mr Museveni is set to campaign once more — this time as an 81-year-old leader seeking to extend a presidency that began before many Ugandans were born.
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