Palakast: It means Yoweri Museveni wants to be Uganda's president for life

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• • Xan Rice in Namasuba
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 20.05 GMT
  • Article history



Tens of thousands of supporters of President Yoweri Museveni wave flags at a final election rally in Kampala, Uganda. Photograph: Dai Kurokawa/EPA The president emerged through the sunroof with two raised thumbs and a smile of content. He was gazing out at thousands of his supporters crammed on the football field. His image was printed on their shirts, caps and umbrellas. On one poster held aloft, Yoweri Museveni's head had been pasted on to the naked torso of a gun-toting Rambo, which might have pleased the president, given his ascent to power in Uganda as a guerrilla fighter 25 years ago. The mood was boisterous – there had been squabbles over freebie T-shirts and water – but when he reached the rostrum, the president adopted a serious tone. "Don't think elections are a mere joke," he told the crowd, on the outskirts of Kampala. "Politics is linked to your life and your future." Replace "politics" with "Museveni" and the statement might have been more apposite. In Friday's presidential and parliamentary elections, the only leader many Ugandans have ever known is standing for a fourth term. And that is by no means the limit of his ambition, as his campaign slogan "pakalast" – "until the end" – suggests.Read More