Today, 24 September 2025, is the second nomination day for presidential candidates in Uganda. And yet, I find myself asking whether this is September 2025 or December 2005.
President Yoweri Museveni, of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), was nominated yesterday, the 7th time he will appear on the ballot paper as a presidential candidate since his rebel army captured power in January 1986.
Others to be nominated in the two-day exercise include the leader of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), long-time legislator Nathan Nandala Mafabi; Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) leader, Mugisha Muntu; and the National Unity Platform (NUP)’s Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.
At least 38 people picked nomination forms, though many of them failed raise the number of signatures required from at least two-thirds of 146 districts, according to the Electoral Commission.
Elections are slated for 12 January 2026.
One of the names that will be missing on the ballot paper is that of Dr. Kizza Besigye, once an ally of President Museveni but who has been his biggest opponent since 2001.
This is where today’s nomination exercise mirrors that of 2005.
Nominations for the 23 February 2006 elections took place on the December 14 – 15, 2005. Besigye had just returned from exile in South Africa to stand for the second time as a presidential candidate. On November 14th, a month to the nomination day, Besigye was arrested on treason, concealment of treason and rape charges.
His party at the time, FDC, would submit his documents for nomination. Throughout the campaign period, he battled the charges in both the High Court (rape) and the Military Court (treason).
To lead the government prosecution team in the rape case was a deputy director of public prosecutions, Simon Byabakama Mugenyi.
Museveni eventually won the elections with 59% of the vote against Besigye’s 37%. Both the treason and rape charges could not stand the test of legal scrutiny. The rape case was dismissed two weeks after the elections.
On November 16, 2024, two decades after the events of November 2005, Besigye and his aide Obeid Lutale were kidnapped in Kenya. Days later they appeared in a military court in Kampala and were remanded. They are still in prison.
To lead the nomination process for Candidate Yoweri Museveni, today, is Simon Byabakama Mugenyi, the man who led the prosecution against Besigye in 2005-2006. He is now a Judge and Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.
Just like in 2005, presidential nominations take place when Kizza Besigye is in jail (but not a candidate this time). Yoweri Museveni will be on the ballot paper, again. Justice Byabakama won’t be prosecuting Besigye this time. His is to ensure the country has a free and fair election come January 12.
