Uganda: Prospects for democracy and the revival of the Kingdoms

Abstract

Democracy has been conspicuous by its absence in Uganda almost since independence as the executive presidency of Milton Obote gave way to the eight‐year tyranny of Idi Amin and the questionable voting practices which ushered in Obote's second term, itself interrupted by a second military coup in 1985. The attainment of power a year later by the National Resistance Movement of Yoweri Museveni ushered in a period during which political parties including the main opposition Democratic Party were forbidden to hold rallies and the founding of new parties was banned. In March 1996 a presidential election between Museveni and a candidate backed by an alliance of supporters of the DP and Obote's Uganda People's Congress party resulted in a landslide victory for the incumbent head of state. The period before the elections was characterized by continuing constitutional discussions within a Constituent Assembly over the manner in which Uganda's kingdoms, abolished by Obote in his first presidency to overcome the rif...