KAMPALA, Uganda — President Yoweri Museveni, at 80 years old, will seek re-election in Uganda’s general polls scheduled for early next year, his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party announced on Tuesday 24, June 2025.
This confirmation extends the widely anticipated bid by the veteran leader to prolong his nearly four-decade rule over the East African nation.
The announcement comes against a backdrop of a mounting crackdown on opposition figures and activists in Uganda, who have faced intimidation, abductions, and detentions in the lead-up to the January election.
In an official statement on its website, the NRM party declared that President Museveni “seeks to retain the positions of the NRM chairman and party presidential flag bearer in the 2026 elections.”
Tanga Odoi, Chairperson of the NRM electoral commission, further confirmed to Vivid Voice News that Museveni would formally express an “interest for the president as the party flag bearer in the forthcoming general elections.”
Once lauded for his early commitment to good governance, the former rebel leader has progressively stifled dissent, amending the constitution multiple times to enable his continuous pursuit of power.
Museveni’s declaration follows a similar confirmation from one of his most prominent opponents, musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine (real name Robert Kyagulanyi), who also intends to contest in 2026.
Wine previously challenged Museveni in the 2021 elections, which were widely criticized for widespread irregularities and severe violence perpetrated by security forces.
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Bobi Wine has been arrested numerous times, and chillingly, Museveni’s son and apparent heir, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has repeatedly threatened to behead him on social media.
Last year, another long-standing electoral adversary, Dr Kizza Besigye, was controversially abducted in neighboring Kenya and subsequently brought to Uganda. He currently faces the death penalty on treason charges.
These charges have drawn widespread condemnation from international human rights organizations, with Besigye’s wife, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima, asserting that his detention is purely “for political reasons.”
She elaborated, “He is being criminalised because he has challenged, he has put himself forward as a candidate in elections.”
