Fourth-time presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye has revealed that he will not be running for the 2021 presidential seat. A statement that has left millions of his supporters disappointed.
Dr Besigye made this public on Wednesday during an address to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) supporters at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi, Kampala.
He stated that the party leaders have decided to look for someone else to run in the 2021 presidential race.
According to Dr Besigye, the party’s strategy is to use elections as Plan A of the struggle to free the country from the autocratic rule as the leaders prepare the population to fight in Plan B.
Dr Besigye’s decision not to contest in the 2021 presidential race has left the FDC looking for who will carry the party’s flag.
Previously while appearing on NTV’s On the Spot political talk show, Besigye refused to answer the question on whether he would contest in 2021.
He insisted several times that it was a wrong question and stated that no election will remove President Museveni.
“We do not need an election to get freedom. The strategy must be to prepare ourselves to fight for our country with or without an election,” said Dr Besigye.
Since 2001, Besigye has been challenging President Museveni for the country’s presidency in the last four elections till this year that he is stepping down.
He served as the president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) political party and was an unsuccessful candidate in Uganda's 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 presidential elections.
He lost all of them to the incumbent Yoweri Museveni, who has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986.
On several occasions, he has accused Museveni of rigging the elections claiming he has been the victim of a campaign of intimidation by the security forces.
Besigye then went to the Supreme Court in 2001 and 2006, and on both occasions, the judges unanimously confirmed there was widespread rigging but on a split decision of 5:2 and 4:3 respectively.
The majority of judges ruled that the vote-stealing was not substantial as to reverse the final result.
Earlier this year, Dr Besigye also appeared in the Guinness world book of records as the most arrested man in the world. This was when he was arrested for the 50th time in Uganda.
In this episode, he was detained at Nalufenya Police Station where he missed to address the party of loyalists at Bugembe Stadium in Jinja.
Uganda police with tear gas dispersed his rally.
However, 30% of his arrests alone came in 2016 when he got arrested more than 15 times during Uganda’s Presidential elections.
Besigye is also a husband and a father, married to the Executive Director of UNAIDS Engineer Winnie Byanyima and together they have a 20-year-old son.
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