Date set for Uganda elections

2010-10-25 14:29

Kampala - Uganda will hold presidential elections on February 18 and incumbent Yoweri Museveni will face his long-time foe Kizza Besigye for the third time, the electoral body chief said on Monday.

At a ceremony at the Mandela national football stadium in Kampala, the head of the election panel Badru Kigundu declared both men qualified as presidential candidates.

"The polling day will be February 18," he said.

Presidential nominations end on Tuesday, and election officials say up to eight candidates in all could be qualified.

Besigye, who for years served as Museveni's personal doctor before breaking with the regime in 1999, lost to his former boss in the 2001 and 2006 polls.

"We want to make Uganda a modern country, a first world country," Museveni told journalists shortly after his formal nomination.

Besigye identified unchecked government corruption as a crucial campaign issue.

"Almost one third of our GDP is stolen every year," he said. "We want to transform this country back to focusing on the common good."

Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movemement party, in power since 1986, and Besigye's four-party grouping, the Inter-party Co-operation, are scheduled to launch their presidential campaigns at rallies in Kampala later on Monday.

Campaigning only kicks off officially on October 28.

- SAPA