Main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Chairman Wasswa Biriggwa had dropped out of the race for the party’s presidential flagbearer, meaning that president Patrick Oboi Amuriat will take on Yoweri Museveni and other candidates in the 2021 election.
Biriggwa announced he was dropping out to rally behind Amuriat shortly before delegates gathered at the FDC headquarters at Najjanankumbi were due to choose between the two.
The Party Chairman said his withdrawal from the flagbearer race was in the interest of unity in the FDC.
Now, former MP Amuriat will face ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986.
Amuriat will also face Museveni’s bush war comrade and ex-army commander Maj Gen (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu, the man he defeated in the 2017 FDC election after which he (Muntu) left to found the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT).
Muntu is the ANT flagbearer.
Also in the race is Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and People Power pressure group, city pastor Joseph Kabuleta and former security minister Lt Gen (Rtd) Henry Tumukunde.
In total, the 2021 presidential race that Amuriat is set to join has so far attracted over 80 candidates.
Amuriat will be seeking to fit in the shoes of opposition strongman Col (Rtd) Dr Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s former personal physician and his fiercest critic for two decades.
Dr Besigye has challenged Museveni in four presidential elections, three of these as the FDC candidate.
He declined to stand for a fifth time despite Amuriat and other FDC top leaders’ efforts to convince him to hold the party’s flag.
Other political observers had suspected that Kampala Lord Mayor and Besigye’s deputy at the People’s Government Erias Lukwago would seek the party’s flag.
But Lukwago choose to seek another term as city mayor.
