Presidential elections in Uganda, which will notably pitch incumbent Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, against popular youth singer Bobi Wine, will be held on January 14, according to an official announcement Wednesday.
“The 14th day of January is appointed polling day for presidential elections 2021,” the spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Paul Bukenya, said on Twitter.
The commission has called on all candidates to attend a meeting on Thursday where the “detailed programme” of the election will be unveiled, he said.
Eleven people have filed their bid for the presidency.
The political mood is tense ahead of the vote.
Wine, a 38-year-old opposition MP whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, is famed for pop songs about social justice, poverty and corruption that are widely followed by young Ugandans.
He has been repeatedly arrested, most recently on Tuesday, when he said he was also “beaten” and “tortured” after registering his candidacy.
His concerts are routinely banned and public rallies broken up with tear gas.
Museveni, 76, seized power at the head of a rebel army.
He has had the constitution amended twice to allow him to run for a sixth time in 2021, and filed his candidacy Monday as the flag-bearer for the ruling National Resistance Movement party.
[AFP]
