Kizza Besigye party drops out of 2026 Uganda polls, to back joint opposition candidate
It added that a 28-member National Campaign Team will travel across the country spreading the freedom message.
Uganda’s People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), a party closely linked to opposition leader Kizza Besigye, has declared it will not present a presidential candidate in the 2026 general elections.
Instead, the party plans to unite opposition forces behind a single candidate through the FREEDOM CAMPAIGN, aiming to challenge what it describes as a militarised election engineered by the ruling regime.
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The decision comes amid heightened tensions following the abduction and deportation of Besigye and his aide, Obeid Lutale, from Nairobi to Kampala, where they face charges of illegal possession of firearms, ammunition, and treachery.
“The party, PFF, has made this decision in the broader interest of building a single stronger freedom-seeking force that should steer the country throughout this turbulent political period and hold it together after the continued disappearance and abduction of citizens, including candidates,” PFF Secretary General Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda said on Tuesday.
It added that a 28-member National Campaign Team will travel across the country spreading the freedom message.
The party is coordinating closely with the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) led by Maj Gen (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu, and the National Unity Platform (NUP) headed by Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine.
Ssemujju confirmed that at least two meetings have already been held with NUP to explore a joint presidential candidate.
He further accused the Electoral Commission of being compromised by military influence, though EC spokesperson Julius Mucunguzi dismissed the claims as baseless.
“The Commission has constitutional powers to adjust the election roadmap when necessary.”
The party criticised the continued detention of political leaders, saying, “The continued detention of our leader and Hajji Obeid plus all other political prisoners is a matter we must all rise and detest in the strongest terms possible.”
The move marks a second absence from the presidential ballot for Besigye, who also sat out the 2021 elections, while his party focuses on consolidating opposition forces to unseat President Yoweri Museveni, who is seeking re-election after nearly four decades in power.
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