After spending at least 35 years in power, Uganda long-running president Yoweri Museveni is seeking re-election again in polls scheduled for early 2026, the country’s ruling party made this disclosure on Tuesday, 24 June, 2025.
The 80-year-old former rebel leader had been widely expected to try and extend his almost four-decade rule over the east African country.
The opposition has faced a mounting crackdown ahead of the general election in January, with leading activists and politicians intimidated, abducted and detained.
Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, which made the this disclosure in a statement on its website on Tuesday, 24 June, 2025, said that the leader “seeks to retain the positions of the NRM chairman and party presidential standard bearer in the 2026 elections”.
The NRM chairperson of the electoral commission, Tanga Odoi, also confirmed to AFP that Museveni would declare an “interest for the president as the party flag bearer in the forthcoming general elections”.
Once hailed for his commitment to good governance, Museveni has crushed any opposition and tweaked the constitution to allow himself to run again and again.
His announcement follows one of his most prominent opponents, musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine, also confirming that he intended to run in 2026.
Wine, real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, lost to Museveni in elections in 2021 that were marred by widespread reports of irregularities and severe violence from security forces.
He has been arrested numerous times, with Museveni’s son and heir-apparent General Muhoozi Kainerugaba repeatedly threatening to behead him on social media.
Last year, Kizza Besigye, another long-time electoral foe, was abducted in neighbouring Kenya and brought to Uganda where he now faces the death penalty for treason.
The charges have been widely condemned by international rights groups, with his wife UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima saying he had been detained “for political reasons”.
“He is being criminalised because he has challenged, he has put himself forward as a candidate in elections,” she said.
Museveni is the ninth and current president of Uganda since 1986. As of 2025, he is the third-longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world
Source: AFP
