Besigye: "I will not stand in 2021"

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) founding president, Dr. Kizza Besigye has officially confirmed that he will not be on the ballot in 2021 ending speculation as to whether he will pick nomination forms to challenge President Museveni for the fifth time.

Speaking at the FDC headquarters in Najjanankumbi, Besigye said the time had come to rally behind other people in the struggle to remove Museveni.

Besigye arrived at Najjanankumbi amid speculation and ululations from gallant party youth who first refused him to address them without picking nomination forms.

The situation however normalised minutes later and Besigye closed the party's nomination process with a keynote address where he said that he will support the FDC candidate, but he won't contest.

Besigye said: "Today I came to be part of you as we flag off the process of 'Channel A' to continue. I can tell you that I have every confidence in our leaders."

Besigye said that he is still in the struggle and will fight President Museveni on two fronts which he named Channel A and Channel B.

"Some will be operating in Channel A, and other in Channel B but Channel B will support Channel A," Besigye said.

According to Besigye, Channel A is the rightful and legitimate party process of fronting a presidential candidate in the 2021 elections and Channel B will include all change-seeking Ugandans.

Besigye added however that there are many unknowns that the public will no going forward.

So far  party president, Patrick Amuriat and Wasswa Birigwa, the national chairman, have picked forms to contest for in the party's presidential flag bearer race.

 

'My 2016 victory was stolen'

Besigye also reiterated that he won the 2016 elections and should be the legitimate president of Uganda, not Museveni.

Besigye, who is a consistent contender against President Museveni garnered 35.4 per cent of the vote while Museveni was declared winner with 60.8 per cent in 2016.

Museveni’s victory was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

However, the FDC candidate would later declare himself president at a ceremony where he was sworn in.

He was consequently arrested and charged with treason, a charge that is still pending in court.

Besigye on Wednesday claimed that he is the legitimate President of Uganda, having won the elections.

“The regime took over our machines here and for three weeks they occupied our offices to capture the evidence we had that we had won the elections, but they did not succeed,” Besigye claimed.

“I can assure you that the greatest number of forms are in our possessions, we can use them to demonstrate to any body that we won the elections,” he added.

Besigye claimed that he put it to Museveni to allow an audit of the elections to determine who was the winner, but the latter developed cold feet.

“We wanted an audit of the elections, our friends the swedes offered help. We even signed an Mou to audit. Museveni chickened out of the audit after realizing he did not win,” Besigye said.

In 2018, President Museveni and Besigye signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing on five key issues to determine talks between the two.

The talks were supposed to be facilitated by Sweden’s State Secretary Annika Söde.

“Museveni is illegitimate as a leader of this nations. I was taken to jail for declaring to be a winner, I told court to charge me,” Besigye reported

“It is now five years and we are going into another election, I have never been tried. I am still a prisoner of treason. They don’t want the truth to come out,” he added.

Besigye also claimed the Electoral Commission headed by Simon Byabakama is illegitimate and only a puppet of President Museveni.

“The EC itself itself is illegitimate because it has been set up by an illegitimate man. And he continues to tamper with it. Museveni would not be on the ballot today,” he added.