Muntu adjusts Busia, Tororo campaign programme over presidential debate

________________

The Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. (rtd) Mugisha Muntu, has adjusted his campaign schedule in Busia and Tororo districts to allow him to participate in a televised presidential debate scheduled for Sunday, November 30.

The change follows the decision by President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) to skip the debate, citing a late invitation on November 21 and its exclusion from the Electoral Commission programme approved by the chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama.

Muntu had earlier planned rallies in Busia and Tororo, focusing on poverty alleviation through Agriculture Credit Financing loans, which attract an interest rate of 12 percent to support agricultural production.

Speaking to the press in Namutumba district shortly before travelling to Kampala on Sunday, Muntu said that reviving cooperative movements and expanding access to affordable credit were essential for enabling farmers to drive Uganda’s economic transformation.

“I am going to a presidential debate in Kampala. I have heard that President Museveni is not likely to appear, but it has no impact because he should even never have participated in the 2026 general elections due to the fact that he has got nothing special to offer to Ugandans after 40 years in power,” he said.

“For me, I ruled President Museveni out of power in 2005 when he initiated the change of term limits. That is when he should have retired, and the next new president should have retired in 2016, and it would be my turn from 2021,” he added.

He confirmed that rallies expected to take place in Busia and Tororo on November 30, 2025, had been rescheduled to Boxing Day, December 26, 2025.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but our supporters also need to hear our next agenda for this country because we are prepared for any eventuality that may happen to the head of state anytime because he is in his evenings,” he elaborated.

Muntu will join seven other presidential candidates, including Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Robert Kasibante of the National Peasants’ Party (NPP), Joseph Elton Mabirizi of the Conservative Party (CP) and Frank Bulira, who is contesting under the Revolutionary Peoples’ Party (RPP).

The eighth candidate, Mubarak Nalunga Munyagwa of the Common Man’s Party (CMP), has said he will not attend the debate without President Museveni, arguing that it would lead to unnecessary clashes among opposition candidates.

“I am not going to attend because I do not want to clash with other opposition candidates on how we can fight him. President Museveni is undermining the opposition, and that’s why we should not gather together to speak against him instead of coordinating underground to see how we can fight as a united force,” Munyagwa said.

This is Uganda’s second presidential debate, the first having taken place in 2016. During that debate, Museveni participated in the second round, while his main rival, Dr Col (rtd) Kiiza Besigye, faced him directly, marking a significant moment in the country’s multiparty political history.