As the battle for the 2021 general elections draws closer, the man behind the People Power campaign, Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi has said President Museveni’s stay in power is numbered.
“I tell you (Museveni), your days are numbered. How can you say you went to the bush and fought for democracy yet you don’t even practice it in your NRM (National Resistance Movement) party even after 33 years?” Mr. Kyagulanyi said.
Mr. Kyagulanyi, who announced his intention to run for the presidency in 2021 general elections, asked the crowd in Arua to register for national identification cards so that they can be eligible to participate in 2021 elections and protect the votes as they did in last year’s Arua Municipality by-election.
“I ask you to have that same courage and be firm. Be assertive to your rights. Do the same like we did in August last year,” Mr Kyagulanyi said.
He lashed out at Museveni who said he should concentrate on his music career and not politics.
The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party’s topmost organ, the Central Executive Committee or CEC, endorsed President Museveni as its presidential flag bearer for the 2021 polls.
The constitutional court in July last year ruled in favor of removing the limit. Last month Uganda’s Supreme Court began hearing a petition to challenge this decision.
Museveni, who seized power at the head of a rebel army in 1986, once said leaders who “overstayed” were the root of Africa’s problems.
The move by NRM’s top organ to ring-fence the position of party presidential flag bearer for Mr. Museveni follows a similar resolution by the national association of districts and lower local government councils under the Uganda Local Government’s Association (ULGA).
The ongoing maneuvers to front the incumbent President unopposed bear the hallmarks of the run-up to the 2016 elections when a similar tactic was adopted to lock out the then Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, turned-political rival.