President Yoweri Museveni is expected to officially pick up nomination forms for the positions of National Resistance Movement (NRM) party chairperson and presidential flag bearer on Saturday, June 28, 2025.
Dr. Tanga Odoi, Chairperson of the NRM Electoral Commission, confirmed that Museveni will collect the expression of interest forms from the party’s Electoral Commission headquarters in Kampala.
Museveni, the founding leader of the NRM, is seeking to maintain his role as Party Chairperson and a member of the Central Executive Committee (CEC).
He also aims to once again represent the party in the upcoming presidential elections. This move follows the Kyobe Resolution, passed in 2019 by the NRM’s CEC and parliamentary caucus, which unanimously endorsed him as the party’s sole candidate for the 2021 elections and beyond.
The resolution cited Museveni’s long-standing leadership, experience, and vision as central to Uganda’s development.
Dr. Odoi stated that all candidates for positions on the CEC—the party’s top decision-making body—will be formally nominated on July 4, 2025. The window for expressing interest in these positions opens on June 26, 2025.
While the CEC has effectively reserved the chairmanship for Museveni, internal opposition remains. Some party members, including those previously labeled “rebel MPs,” have opposed his continued leadership. Legal challenges to Museveni’s sole candidature have been brought before the Constitutional Court, but so far, none have succeeded.
Last week, tension flared at the NRM Commission offices when Julius Tumuhimbise, a 36-year-old from Busenyi, attempted to pick up nomination forms to contest for the presidency on the NRM ticket. He was turned away by officials, who informed him that the process for presidential expression of interest had not yet been opened. Tumuhimbise insisted that, as a party member, he had the right to run.
In other political developments, retired Major General Frederick Ociti Tolit has been nominated to contest the Chua East Constituency seat in Kitgum District. Tolit, formerly the Chairperson of the General Court Martial, retired from the military in 2024 and returned to his home area, where he says he found widespread leadership failure and community suffering.
Tolit pointed to lingering effects of past conflict, including poverty, poor access to education, insecurity from Karamojong raids, and threats from wild animals near Kidepo National Park. He also highlighted the collapse of essential services, particularly clean water access, with many boreholes in disrepair. Communities are now forced to share water sources with animals, he said.
He vowed to restore government services and warned that without urgent intervention, the region risks slipping back into instability and conflict.
Meanwhile, Charles Nsereko has been nominated to run for the Nakaseke South Constituency, while Noeline Basemera Kisembo is seeking to retain her seat as Kibale District Woman MP.
Nominations for NRM Parliamentary, District, and City Mayoral flag bearers are ongoing and will close on June 30, 2025. Elections are scheduled to take place on July 16, 2025.
