Inside UPC's plan to regain foothold in 2026

The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has revealed plans to zero down on online register and other tricks as one of the country's oldest political parties jubilates to have deployed new strategy that earned it victory in the recent Dokolo Woman Member of Parliament By-election.

The party top leadership now vow to keep holding on the adopted strategies to swim through victory come 2026 general elections.

This, according to UPC president Jimmy Akena, will counteract strategies deployed by other parties in the same competitive race, despite the unshaken party leader vying to revamp party presence across the country.

The outcomes of the Dokolo Woman MP by-election appeared to a re-energise UPC, which is now vying to deploy similar tricks to rejuvenate party's support countrywide.

UPC's Sarah Aguti polled 23,000 votes to beat her nearest challenger, NRM's Janet Adongo who got 14,000 votes and four other candidates and replace the late Cecilia Ogwal, who died in January.

As other political parties are embarking on different strategies to garner support ahead of 2026 general elections, Akena says UPC is not without a plan

"We are not there to imitate what others are doing," he said.

"We are on track, We have developed a new online register and we tried it in Dokolo and it was a success."

As the political landscape continue to boil up, with many parties eying victory ahead of 2026, UPC has zeroed down on adopting an online register that it anticipate to deliver a vibrant party than ever before.

"The public should expect a vibrant UPC than ever before, UPC had Never had a central register but now we hope online register will help us based on the lessons learnt from Dokolo by-election. We are going to improve our party structures. 2026 shall find us already prepared," Akena added.

But as the clock ticks further with less than two years remaining for the public to cast votes on influence political positions, how strong is the UPC structure? Does it have a running register of it's members?

Of late the UPC has ceased to be a sleeping giant as it scooped victory from two subsequent parliamentary elections, a signal to only opposition parties about also cast doubt of mass victory to the ruling party the NRM.