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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Sep 12 2010 - 09:29:57 EDT
Uganda's Museveni picked to run for fourth term
Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:30am GMT
* Critics say his leadership is increasingly despotic * Uganda's oil likely
to be hot campaign issue
By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Uganda's ruling National Resistance Movement
(NRM) party backed President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, as its
candidate on Sunday for next year's presidential election.
Already one of Africa's longest serving leaders, Museveni was elected
unopposed in front of more than 15,000 party members to face off against
retired Colonel Kizza Besigye, already nominated by a coalition of
opposition parties.
"His excellency President Yoweri Museveni has passed unopposed as party
chairman and our flagbearer for the 2011 presidential elections and so he
remains our chairman and our candidate," said Felicitus Magomu, chairperson
of the NRM electoral commission.
Museveni rose to power in 1986 when his National Resistance Army (NRA)
insurgents seized power from a short-lived military junta.
He embraced a no-party model of democracy meant to eliminate the
sectarianism that plagued post-colonial Ugandan politics, while foreign
donors praised his prudent and liberal economic management.
In the past decade, however, support at home has fallen and relations with
the West have frayed because of mounting accusations by the opposition and
rights groups that his leadership has turned autocratic and corrupt.
Political analysts say Museveni, whose share of the vote has dwindled at
each of the last three elections amid allegations of increased rigging,
could face his stiffest challenge yet if the opposition coalition holds
together.
The fragility of the opposition Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC) was
highlighted last month when one of the five parties withdrew in a dispute
over a demand to replace the Electoral Commission.
Besigye, who was Museveni's field doctor during the NRA's bush war and
one-time close political ally, ran against Museveni in 2001 and 2006. He
heads the Forum for Democratic Change party.
Observers say Besigye has seized on oil as a galvanising issue, with the
government embroiled in a tax dispute with British oil explorer Heritage Oil
after the sale of its Uganda assets to Tullow Oil.
"The main opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, has put the Museveni
government on the defensive in its oil policies, playing on nationalist and
anti-corruption themes that resonate in urban areas where the president is
weakest," said Philippe de Pontet, Africa director at the Eurasia Group in a
research note.
The run-up to next year's ballot coincides with heightened security fears
after Somali rebels carried out a suicide bomb attack on the Ugandan capital
Kampala in July, killing at least 79 people. (Writing by Richard Lough;
Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
TIMELINE-Uganda ruling party picks Museveni as 2011 candidate
Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:44am GMT
Sept 12 (Reuters) - Uganda's ruling National Resistance Movement party on
Sunday endorsed President Yoweri Museveni as its candidate in next year's
presidential election.
Museveni, who came to power in 1986, will vie for his fourth term in office
as east Africa's third largest economy gears up to become an oil producer.
Here is a timeline on Uganda in the last 40 years:
Jan. 1971 - Army commander Idi Amin seizes power in a coup, while President
Milton Obote is out of the country, and launches eight years of terror and
economic chaos.
Aug. 1972 - Amin expels 75,000 Asians.
1976 - Amin declares himself president-for-life.
Oct. 1978 - Uganda invades Tanzania pursuing a territorial claim. Tanzania
retaliates.
Feb. 1979 - Tanzania invades and helps Ugandan rebels overthrow Amin in
April. Yusufu Lule installed as president, but quickly replaced by Godfrey
Binaisa.
May 1980 - Binaisa overthrown by army and Obote wins rigged elections in
December.
1985 - Obote is deposed in coup and replaced by General Tito Okello.
Jan. 1986 - National Resistance Army rebels take Kampala and install Yoweri
Museveni as president.
Feb. 1989 - A new parliament, the National Resistance Council, is formed.
June 1995 - New constitution legalises political parties, but maintains ban
on political activity.
May 1996 - Museveni wins Uganda's first direct presidential election.
July 2000 - Ugandan voters reject multi-party politics in favour of
Museveni's "no-party" system.
March 2001 - Museveni wins flawed presidential elections. The constitution
bars him from standing again in 2006.
March 2002 - Sudan, Uganda sign agreement aimed at containing Ugandan rebel
group, Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), active along common border. Led by
"prophet" Joseph Kony the rebels have kidnapped an estimated 30,000 people
and displaced 1.6 million people in 18 years of war.
Dec. 2004 - The government and the LRA hold their first peace talks in over
a decade. But negotiations fail.
June 2005 - Uganda's parliament votes to scrap term limits, a move critics
say is aimed at making Museveni president-for-life.
Oct. 2005 - The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for five
LRA commanders, including LRA leader Joseph Kony.
Feb. 2006 - Museveni wins re-election with 59 percent to 37 percent over his
former doctor and nearest rival Kizza Besigye, official figures show.
July 2006 - The deputy leader of the LRA ventures out of the bush for a
meeting on the Sudan-Congo border with a delegation seeking to persuade the
rebels to agree to peace.
Aug. 2006 - Uganda and LRA rebels sign on Aug. 26 a cessation of hostilities
deal at talks in Sudan in a major breakthrough in efforts to end one of
Africa's longest wars.
-- Three days later a ceasefire comes into force. Subsequent peace talks are
marred by regular walk-outs.
Nov. 2008 - Kony tells traditional elders he will not sign a final peace
deal until the arrest warrant for him is scrapped.
-- On Dec. 14, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan
launch a joint assault on Kony's base in Congo after Kony failed again to
sign an accord to end the two-decade war.
Feb. 2010 - Museveni has placed his presidential guard under an elite army
unit commanded by his son, Lieutenant Colonel Keinerugaba Muhoozi,
increasing opposition suspicions that he is quietly grooming his son for
succession.
July 2010 - Somali Islamists carry out two bomb attacks that kill 79 people
in Kampala, at a restaurant and a sports club packed with fans watching the
World Cup final. The al Shabaab Islamist group claims responsibility in
revenge for Uganda's contribution to a peacekeeping force in Somalia.
Aug. 2010 - Museveni says he will contest the 2011 presidential poll,
extending a presidency that started in 1986.
Sept 2010 - Museveni elected unopposed as NRM flagbearer in 2011's
presidential ballot.
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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