Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement has endorsed President Yoweri Museveni as its candidate for next year’s general election and his seventh term as leader of the East African nation.
Eighty-year-old Museveni accepted the nomination in a speech to the party’s delegate conference in Kampala, and thanked the party for putting its trust in him once again.
Museveni first took power in 1986 as head of a rebel force.
He has since been elected six times, after securing constitutional amendments to remove presidential term limits and an age cap.
Should he win in January, it would bring him close to five decades in power in the East African nation.
Waving a NRM pamphlet, Museveni used the occasion to tout his party’s achievements:
“What is in this booklet is what the NRM has achieved, when we came in, we knew exactly what to do and that’s why the economy of Uganda has recovered. And as I speak today, we have gone through five phases,” he said.
Museveni says criticism of his long stay in power is unjustified because he is re-elected every five years.
His main opponent in the last election was the singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, who has also declared his candidacy in the polls set for January.
Africanews/Hauwa M.