11 presidential candidates

Patrick Oboi Amuriat (FDC)

With the FDC strongman, Dr. Kizza Warren Besigye opting out of the 2021 election, the mantle fell on Patrick Oboi Amuriat who is not considered a major threat to Museveni.

Explaining his campaign theme, “Building a New Uganda,” Amuriat said: “My candidature represents the 90% of Ugandans that suffer under the weight of being marginalised on the basis of ethnicity, the young people that have no opportunity to access jobs, mothers that die while giving birth, children that have been offered half-baked education under the guise of universal education, the high cost of living and insurmountable levels of corruption.”

“My candidature represents the 99% of people who continue to suffer; my candidature is against the 1% of Ugandans who are responsible for the suffering of the 99%,” he said, “We go into the election working for a win but of course if this does not come, then the dividend about it should be for us to rally support of the population so that the country is given back to the people.”

Amuriat’s slogan for the 2021 election is: “A Uganda that is equal for everybody; a Uganda that is going to address the needs of the peasants deep in my village; the person who wakes up every day and goes to work to ensure that they provide a service to Uganda and yet they don’t get paid as much; that woman who goes to deliver in a health facility and risks dying.

My candidature is about this young person whose family sells everything to ensure that they attain an education and yet at the end of the day, he or she comes back without a job.

“We are going to cut costs on expenditure and we will run a lean government so that the money that is freed goes into helping the suffering people in rural Uganda,” Amuriat said.

Norbert Mao (Democratic Party)

Mao is the only candidate who has ever participated in the presidential race before. He is running under the theme “Reclaiming Our Future.” Mao too thinks Uganda has a multitude of challenges at the moment.

“We have a polarized country and Uganda needs a person who can unite the various communities of Uganda,” he said after being nominated on Nov.03. Mao says Uganda needs a new consensus; a consensus that ushered in independence for Ugandans in 1962 and in that case Uganda needs a person like Mao. In regards to the economy, Mao says, Uganda’s economy is in disarray.

“Uganda’s economy is like a fruit tree in your compound. Its roots which feed the fruit tree with nutrients are in your compound but the fruits keep falling over other people’s compounds.”  He says Uganda’s economy only enriches other people not the citizens of the country. He says most of Uganda’s economic challenges are a result of short-sightedness in policy making.

He mentions the privatization policy which saw all parastatals sold. Mao says the current government has paid lip service to transformation and it is time for Ugandans to claim their country from a regime that is failing its citizens.

“We need to fix the economy so that the farmer can be able to be supported to have the means to produce and the means to add value to what the farmer produces but, more importantly, the ability to market their produce.

Mao says DP is also presenting to Ugandans a healing president because Ugandans need reconciliation. Ugandans should end the cycle of bloodletting. We must break the cycle of violent regime change.

“Everybody who has something to reclaim, vote DP,” says Mao; “Whether you are talking about “Ebyaffe”, we shall reclaim it for you; whether you are talking about your stolen cattle, our cooperatives, banks, national companies and public houses, we shall reclaim all of them.

“Once DP takes office, the government will set up the Stolen Assets Recovery Tribunal to recover everything that was stolen,” he says.

“A government should be established to serve everybody; the army and police should protect the people; not just the individual sleeping at State House.”

Maj. Gen (rtd) Gregg Mugisha Muntu

Muntu is a former bush war comrade of Museveni’s and now heads one of the youngest political parties in the country—the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT). The ANT will be running its election campaign under the theme, “A Change You Can Trust.”

Muntu says ANT wants to see a Uganda that ensures that everyone is equal before the law and has equal opportunity regardless of religion, tribe, and language. Muntu says ANT will marshal change that goes far beyond the physical development of roads, power and water provision to a change where a local farmer will till their land with the guarantee of great dividend in form of fair prices for their produce.

Muntu says the ANT leadership prides itself on running the economy based on values. He thinks the current government has got a simplistic or distorted understanding of development. He says tarmac roads, power dams and electricity lines are important but ANT’s thinking about development is different.

“Development should put people first; we recognize the centrality of people in creating meaningful sustainable development,” he says, “We recognize that while the physical infrastructural development is needed, it must be anchored on values like; justice and equality before the law, fairness and transparency.”

Muntu insists countries that have achieved physical development but lacked these values have collapsed under their own weight. He says values are the foundation of economic development.

“The aims of ANT are very clear; to remove from office a regime that has put Ugandans in a pitiful state. It is our aim to give our country policies drawn from the desires of all Ugandans.”

Muntu says he will soon explain in his manifesto how his government will create well-paying jobs, boost industrialization, reduce the size of government and most importantly restore dignity among Uganda’s teachers, doctors and nurses and the men and women in uniform so that once again, they can take pride in offering their services to Uganda.