Deputy Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, has launched this Tuesday into the race for the 2021 presidential elections in Uganda with his sights set on liberating the country from the “dictatorship” of the current president, Yoweri Museveni , in power since 1986 and who aspires to his re-election.
The president of the Ugandan Electoral Commission, Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, announced this Tuesday that the well-known singer’s candidacy has been accepted and has taken the opportunity to warn him against holding mass events since “the country still has the problem of COVID-19 “, reports the newspaper ‘New Vision’.
In his first statements after learning that he will be a candidate, Wine has argued that “our struggle to free our country from the dictatorship” is now entering a new phase. “I am here to save President Museveni from himself, from his corruption and patronage, among other things,” he asserted.
The opposition leader has presented himself as “a servant, not a boss” and has promised a government centered on citizens if he wins the elections. “I represent those who have been excluded from a system that works only for the few who are sitting and stepping on the necks of many,” claimed the well-known singer, 38 years old.
Likewise, he has promised that he will give priority to science and technology as “catalysts for development” and to raise the salaries of the security forces. “There is no greater sacrifice than serving in uniform,” he stressed, according to the newspaper ‘Daily Monitor’.
Bobi Wine has become in recent years the main opposition figure against Museveni, taking advantage of the strong pull among the country’s youth, in a country where the average age is below 16 years. A deputy since 2017, he has been arrested on several occasions, while his concerts have been banned and his political acts dispersed with tear gas.
The announcement of the singer’s candidacy comes a day after the Electoral Commission also validated that of Museveni, who at 76 will seek a new re-election, as well as that of two former generals, Mugisha Muntu and Henry Tumukunde.
