Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 80, has been declared the governing party’s candidate for next year’s presidential election, paving the way for him to potentially extend his nearly four-decade rule. In his acceptance speech, Museveni expressed his determination to transform Uganda into a “high middle-income country” if re-elected. He emphasized the importance of not missing historical opportunities, citing Africa’s past stagnation and enslavement during Europe’s transformation.
Museveni’s bid for another term has sparked criticism from opponents, who accuse him of ruling with an iron hand since seizing power in 1986. The president has won every election since then, facilitated by two constitutional amendments that removed age and term limits. Human rights groups have also accused Museveni of using security forces and state patronage to suppress dissent and entrench his power, allegations he denies.
Museveni’s main challenger is expected to be Bobi Wine, a popular pop star-turned-politician. Wine has stated that he would run against Museveni if nominated by his party, the National Unity Platform. However, he has expressed concerns about growing state repression, saying that being in opposition in Uganda often means being labeled a terrorist. Wine lost the 2021 election to Museveni, with allegations of rigging and a crackdown on the opposition.
Another prominent opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, has been in detention since November, accused of treason. Besigye denies the allegations, claiming his arrest is politically motivated.
Despite these challenges, Museveni remains confident in his ability to lead Uganda to prosperity. He has set ambitious economic goals, aiming to grow Uganda’s GDP to $500 billion by 2040. In his acceptance speech, Museveni highlighted Uganda’s potential for growth, citing examples of Asian countries with fewer natural resources that have achieved significant economic progress.
As the election approaches, Museveni’s leadership and vision for Uganda will be under scrutiny. With his long-standing grip on power and the opposition’s determination to challenge him, the outcome of the election will have significant implications for Uganda’s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 80, has been declared the governing party’s candidate for next year’s presidential election, paving the way for him to potentially extend his nearly four-decade rule. In his acceptance speech, Museveni expressed his determination to transform Uganda into a “high middle-income country” if re-elected. He emphasized the importance of not missing historical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/thumbs_b_c_e3f7692d8fc5684e5f17f0cf1baf89fe.jpg?fit=863%2C486&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14812,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14811\/revisions\/14812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}