Uganda’s main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has elected its former leader, Dr. Kizza Besigye, as the party’s candidate to challenge President Yoweri Museveni in the 2016 presidential election.
This will be Besigye’s fourth time trying to unseat Museveni who has been in power for almost 30 years. The FDC election took place Wednesday during the party’s convention in the capital, Kampala.
Besigye defeated retired army commander and current FDC president Major General Mugisha Muntu.
Alex Atuhaire, news editor of the Ugandan Daily Monitor, told VOA Besigye won the nomination by as much as 70 percent of the vote. He said the challenge now is whether the FDC can come up with a strategy so that Besigye can win more votes during next year’s election than he has won in the last three elections as a presidential candidate.
“Dr. Kizza Besigye, the former president, has won the election with 718 votes to General Muntu’s 289. That’s about a win of about 70 percent of the vote,” he said.
Atuhaire said Besigye probably won by a wide margin because he’s known by many FDC supporters, having represented the party in the last three presidential elections.
One account said some Ugandans view Besigye as almost a martyr because of his activism.
