Museveni’s fractious political opponents are striving to get behind a single candidate to fight him for the presidency
After three days of drawn-out deliberation, the opposition coalition formed in June, the Democratic Alliance, had still not been able to decide on a joint candidate for the 2016 presidential election as Africa Confidential went to press. As the most prominent figure in the opposition and the runner-up in the past three elections, the leader of the Forum for Democratic Change, Kizza Besigye, had assumed the honour would go to him.
This has become less certain since June, when former Prime Minister Patrick Amama Mbabazi announced that he too would challenge President Yoweri Museveni for the top job. Mbabazi was sacked as Premier in September last year when it became clear to all that the President had reneged on a reported promise to transfer power to him before the 2016 elections. Earlier this month, Mbabazi declared that he would contest for the TDA ticket, which pits him directly against Besigye to be seen as opposition leader.
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