Museveni, 74, president since 1986, runs for sixth term

Museveni says now is not the best time to leave Uganda’s seat of power

Museveni, 74, president since 1986, runs for sixth term

Uganda’s ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has endorsed President Yoweri Museveni as its candidate for the 2021 elections.

NRM agreed, in a meeting chaired by Museveni on Wednesday, that he should “continue leading the movement and the state in 2021 and beyond to eliminate bottlenecks to transformation”.

This means the 74-year-old leader, who came to power in 1986, will be running for a sixth term.

Museveni once said leaders who “overstayed” in office were the root of Africa’s problems.

But now, he does not see himself as a root to the political problems of Africa

However, he said, while running for a fifth term in 2016, that it was not the right time for him to leave as he still had work to do.

His candidacy for Uganda’s next election comes after he signed a 2017 bill that scrapped the presidential age limit of 75.

Uganda’s Supreme Court began hearing a petition last month to challenge this decision.

Museveni born 15 September 1944 is a Ugandan politician who has been President of Uganda since 1986. Museveni was involved in rebellions that toppled notorious Ugandan leaders Idi Amin (1971–79) and Milton Obote (1980–85) before capturing power in the 80s. In the mid to late 1990s, Museveni was celebrated by the West as part of a new generation of African leaders. During Museveni’s presidency, Uganda has experienced relative peace and significant success in battling HIV/AIDS. At the same time, Uganda remains a country suffering from high levels of corruption, unemployment and poverty. Museveni’s presidency has been marred by involvement in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other Great Lakes region conflicts; the rebellion in Northern Uganda by the Lord’s Resistance Army which caused a drastic humanitarian emergency; and the suppression of political opposition and constitutional amendments scrapping presidential term limits (2005) and the presidential age limit (2017), thus enabling the extension of his rule. These have been a concern to domestic and foreign commentators.