The Emergence of Electoral Authoritarianism in Uganda – 1996 to Present

The Emergence of Electoral Authoritarianism in Uganda – 1996 to Present
By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
Center for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis

The quality of the human environment in Uganda has meteorically deteriorated in all the dimensions of the country’s total environment: the ecological biological dimension, the socioeconomic dimension, the sociocultural dimension and the temporal (time dimension). Most deterioration has been experienced in the sociocultural dimension where ethics, morality and political development are deliberately abused, mainly by the political choices of the governors of the country as they allocate more and more time, energy and money in nonproductive arenas of the economy—particularly security—in order to control the movements, choices, actions and thinking of the people they govern. The most targeted are the political actors in the Opposition and the knowledge workers in the humanities (arts) and social science at the universities for different reasons.

The political actors in the Opposition seek to challenge the incumbent and the ruling party for power. The knowledge workers traditionally challenge the social, economic, political and environmental choices of power academically and intellectually on university campuses and in the public space. What power has sought to achieve is to depoliticise, deradicalise, deintellectualise and deactivate both the opposition political actors and the knowledge workers in the universities in order to nurture a more closed, silent population.

Because knowledge workers in the natural sciences and the attendant professions are less active on social issues such as those of human rights, power has preferred to raise them over and above those in the humanities and social science by paying those in the natural sciences and related professions and even more or less forcing Ugandan pupils and students to do only sciences by reducing government support to students that seek to advance their knowledge and skills in the humanities and social sciences.

The academic and intellectual quality of the universities and the performance of both academic staff and students in debates has grossly plummeted. At most university campuses the conspiracy of silence reigns, reflecting the National Resistance Movement’s (NRM’s) success story in separating academicism or scholasticism from intellectualism on university campuses. Currently, the local universities are contributing minimally to the intellectual development of the world in general and Uganda in particular.

There are far more factors contributing to the deterioration of the human environment in Uganda beyond academic and intellectual concerns. Other factors that must be factored in the equation of the erosion of the quality of Uganda’s human environment also have their origins in the political and military choices of the rulers of Uganda since 1986, but especially since 1996. They include repressive laws such as the Political and Other Organisation, the Antiterrorism Law and the recently passed UPDF Act 2025, which, in combination, depress the political and intellectual development of the people since their primary role is to generate fear and inactivity and leave the freedom of thought to a few individuals.

There are also factors such as corruption, mafiasm, bantustanisation of the country, conversion of UPDF and NRM into supremacist institutions, emergence of Black (NRM regime functionaries) and Brown (Indians and Chinese) white supremacists (White supremacy perpetrated by non-whites has several related roots, some of which are as old as inequality and oppression), disappearance of police in Uganda Police, turning the Public State into Deep State, State violence and institutionalisation of violence, militarised personalist ruling NRM, de-democratisation, militarisation of justice, democratic deception and democratic disguise, presidentialism and presidentialisation of Opposition, patronage, profiteering, opposition enablers of the oppressor, precedence of military politics over and above civilian politics and military capture of Uganda’s civilian spaces.

I have written on virtually all these issues since 2004. Hopefully, researchers will break out of their hiding and begin to research these interwoven issues, which have been woven into a deadly tool to completely exclude the indigenous civilians from effective leadership and governance of their country well in the future.

People excluded from participation in the leadership and governance of their country are unlikely to acquire the necessary experience and skills in leadership and governance, let alone be interested in their country well enough to feel that they are adequately human and patriotic. No amount of forcing them to be patriotic will yield a patriotic population.

In this article I want to focus on the emergence of electoral authoritarianism, which President Tibuhaburwa Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime have employed, alongside deceptive democracy to effectively de-democratise Uganda and create a thick cloud of fear over the population since 1996. We no longer have civilian superiority over the military, let alone civilian superiority over the democratisation process in Uganda. The democratisation process has been distorted by the militarisation of politics (Oweyegha-Afunaduula, 2025).

Van Wyke (2007) wrote that (1) African leadership styles are often characterised by: the need to achieve and hold power; nationalism that perceives one’s own nation or group as superior; distrust of others; and a task-orientated approach. (2) Instability and underdevelopment can challenge public authority and undermine the internal sovereignty of the state. The resulting power vacuums create the conditions for the emergence of informal and private leadership. Informal and private leadership is the foundation of the Deep State. The Deep State has the capacity to disorient the national budget so that its interests are fully financially financed at the expense of the public interest of education, agriculture, health, environment, transport, et cetera (Oweyegha-Afunaduula, 2022). Eventually the public state and institutions are consummated and weakened by the deep state in favour of itself.

Electoral authoritarianism, a relatively new form of non-democratic rule, involves using democratic institutions like elections while simultaneously violating liberal democratic norms, human rights and adhering to authoritarian methods. These regimes are often seen as distinct from hybrid regimes or illiberal democracies, and are characterized by the use of elections as a tool to legitimize power, even when elections are not free and fair.

Andreas Schedler (2015) has observed that electoral authoritarian regimes, such as the NRM regime in Uganda, practice authoritarianism behind the institutional facades of representative democracy. They hold regular multiparty elections at the national level, yet violate liberal-democratic minimum standards in systematic and profound ways. Since the end of the Cold War, they have turned into the most common form of nondemocratic rule in the world.

Responding to the empirical expansion of nondemocratic multiparty elections, Andreas Schedler’s (2015) study of “electoral authoritarian” regimes has taken center stage in comparative political science. He has reviewed the conceptual and empirical foundations of this flourishing new field of comparative politics, summarized cutting-edge research on regime trajectories and internal regime dynamics, and laid out substantive issues and methodological desiderata for future research. Uganda scholars need to be involved in the ongoing research, preferably using the new knowledge production systems of interdisciplinarity, crossdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and extradisciplinarity (non-disciplinarity) in the true spirit of integration of knowledge, skills and experiences.

Uganda is often cited as a classic example of electoral authoritarianism, a system where a government maintains power by holding elections while simultaneously employing various repressive tactics to suppress opposition and ensure its continued rule (e.g. Kagoro, 2024). Sserwadda (2021) characterised the Uganda type electoral authoritarianism as “Elections without democracy.” Anders Sjögren (2025) saw the elections as just ritualistic coronations of President Tibuhaburwa Museveni every five years. Moses Khisa thought that they are just a tool in the process of autocratisation in contemporary Uganda.

One school of thought believes the elections are a continuation of deceptive, disguised democracy designed to project President Tibuhaburwa Museveni and his militarised personalistic NRM as democratic when this is far from the truth. However, it is perturbing that every five years civic political parties struggle to participate in such elections, and many are formed every five years, perhaps with the involvement of the incumbent President or his agents, even when they know the elections are won by President Museveni and his militarised NRM long before they are held.

The motivation for political parties to participate in NRM-organised elections is thought to be the money that the political elite in the opposition get when they have parties that field candidates and participate in such schemes as Interparty Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD). IPOD ritually brings the “Oppressor” and the leaders of the political parties in ritualistic meetings, ostensibly to pursue and promote democracy in the non-election period that follows the elections. The more Members of Parliament a party has the more money it gets.

In this case, NRMO (as registered by the Uganda Electoral Commission), which has the largest number of Members of Parliament, gets most of the money. However, there is a new Bill passed into law and awaiting the President to append his signature (or has he done so?)—a modification of the Political and Other Organisations Law—decreeing that a Party whose leader does not meet under IPOD and other arrangements with the NRM supremo and other party leaders, does not access State funds for its political work. The financial squeeze for political parties that refuse to participate in the ritualistic meetings is a new formidable weapon with which “to kill” multipartyism, and for that matter, political pluralism in Uganda in the 21st Century.

The President, Tibuhaburwa Museveni, committed himself to achieve the feat by 2020 when he was swearing in for his 5th term as President of Uganda. For sure he is still at it using a multiplicity of strategies, including electoral authoritarianism of course.

The Ten Million Dollar Question is: Are Ugandans ready to continue being hoodwinked by elections organised by NRM that are no more than a ritual coronation of President Tibuhaburwa Museveni, autocratising the country even more on the road to the making of a soldier king I wrote about the other day and to be confused by regime-loving ideas such as IPOD that politically and militarily domesticate political party leaders that will ultimately be subject to military justice under the UPDF Act 2025? Well, Time, the best judge, will judge.

For God and My Country.

Further Reading

Aili Mari Tripp (2004). The Changing Face of Authoritarianism in Africa: The Case of Uganda. Africa Today, Spring 2004.

CAP (2020). How White Supremacy Returned to Mainstream Politics. CAP Report, July 1, 2020. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/white-supremacy-returned-mainstream-politics/

Josh Adams and Vincent J. Roscigno (2005). White Supremacists, Opposition Culture and the World Wide Web. Social Forces, December 2005. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3598477

Jude Kagoro (2024). Uganda: Authoritarianism in the Age of Regular Elections – A Review of the 2021 Elections. In Political Science and Public Policy 2024. Elgaronline. https://www.elgaronline.com/book-part-9781802204827-32.xml

Moses Khisa (Editor) (2024). Autocratisation in Contemporary Uganda. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/autocratization-in-contemporary-uganda-9781350323551/

Charles Onyango Obbo (2023). The Mafia has ruled Uganda for 50 years. Daily Monitor, January 25, 2023. https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/columnists/charles-onyango-obbo/this-mafia-has-ruled-uganda-for-50-years-4098396

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2004). Turning Uganda into a Bantustan. The Monitor, December 6, 2004. https://allafrica.com/stories/200412060909.html

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2022). The Supremacy and Sovereignty of Uganda’s Military in the Past and Present. Watchdog News. https://www.watchdoguganda.com/op-ed/20211231/127591/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2022). Uganda from State to Deep State. The Kampala Report, February 10, 2022. https://www.thekampalareport.com/talk-back/202202108893/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2022). From Hereditary Chiefs and Kings to Hereditary Politicians. Ultimate News, April 19, 2022. https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2022/04/uganda-from-hereditary-chiefs-and-kings-to-hereditary-politicians/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2022). Disappearance of Police in Uganda Police. Daily Monitor, February 11, 2022. https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/insight/disappearance-of-police-in-uganda-police-the-dangers-3713354

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2022). Perils of Presidentialism in Uganda. The Sunday Monitor, March 5, 2022. https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/commentary/perils-of-presidentialism-in-uganda-3737584

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2023). Uganda Today: Are There Mafia in Uganda? Uganda Today, August 21, 2023. https://ugandatoday.co.ug/are-there-mafia-in-uganda/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2023). The Role of African Rulers in Institutionalised Violence in Africa. The Kampala Report, May 4, 2023. https://www.thekampalareport.com/talk-back/2023050426367/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). When Ugandans Lost Everything. The Kampala Report, February 2, 2024. https://www.thekampalareport.com/tag/oweyegha-afunaduula

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). The Military Capture of Uganda’s Civic Space Yesterday and Today, March 25, 2024. https://ugandatoday.co.ug/the-military-capture-of-ugandas-civic-space-yesterday-and-today/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). Environmental Militarism. MUWADO, May 14, 2025. https://muwado.com/environmental-militarism/?v=2a0617accf8b

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). How Militarised Personalist Parties Undermine Democratisation: Uganda’s National Resistance Movement in Perspective. Charmar News, March 18, 2025. https://charmarnews.com/how-militarised-personalist-parties-undermine-democratisation-ugandas-national-resistance-movement-in-perspective/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). Military Politics, Democratic Deception and Democratic Disguise. Charmar News, March 26, 2025. https://charmarnews.com/military-politics-democratic-deception-and-democratic-disguise-in-uganda/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). The Place of Political Militarism in the Governance of Uganda. Daily Express, May 30, 2025. https://dailyexpress.co.ug/2025/05/30/the-place-of-political-militarism-in-the-governance-of-uganda/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). Presidentialisation of the Opposition in Uganda. Uganda Radio Network, June 2, 2025. https://ugandaradionetwork.com/s/presidentialisation-of-the-opposition-in-uganda/

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). How Uganda’s Opposition Became Enablers of the Regime. June 3, 2025. https://dailyexpress.co.ug/2025/06/03/oweyegha-afunaduula-how-ugandas-opposition-became-enablers-of-the-regime/

Parliament of the Republic of Uganda (2025). Private Member Presents Bill to Regulate Political Party Funding. Parliament of Uganda, May 19, 2025. https://www.parliament.go.ug/news/3715/private-member-presents-bill-regulate-political-party-funding

Parliament of Uganda (2025). Conditions Set in Approved Political Parties Bill. May 20, 2025. https://www.parliament.go.ug/news/3716/conditions-set-approved-political-parties-funding-bill

Paul S. (2025). Oweyegha-Afunaduula: What it Means to Liberate Justice from the Military in Uganda. Ultimate News, February 3, 2025. https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2025/02/oweyegha-afunaduula-what-it-means-to-liberate-justice-from-the-military-in-uganda/

Paul S. (2025). How Dictators Legitimise Themselves and Consolidate their Power. Ultimate News, May 23, 2025. https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2025/05/oweyegha-afunaduula-how-dictators-legitimise-themselves-and-consolidate-their-power/

Paul S. (2025). State Terrorism in Uganda Before, During, and After Elections. Ultimate News, March 25, 2025. https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2025/03/oweyegha-afunaduula-state-terrorism-in-uganda-before-during-and-after-council-presidential-and-parliamentary-elections/

Paul S. (2025). Towards Hereditary Militarism in Uganda. Ultimate News, May 24, 2025. https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2025/05/opinion-towards-hereditary-militarism-in-uganda/

Christopher Rhodes (2023). Why White Supremacists Are Not Always White. Al Jazeera, June 2, 2023. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/6/2/why-white-supremacists-are-not-always-white

Andreas Schedler (Editor) (2006). Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Elections. Lynne Rienner Publishers. https://www.rienner.com/title/Electoral_Authoritarianism_The_Dynamics_of_Unfree_Competition

Andreas Schedler (2015). Electoral Authoritarianism. Stanford University. https://emergingtrends.stanford.edu/files/original/d8049a5aae402fc5068231eb985c28c506b94fc1.pdf

Anders Sjögren (2025). Why Elections in Uganda are Ritualistic Coronations. Daily Monitor, January 18, 2025. https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/lifestyle/reviews-profiles/why-elections-in-uganda-are-ritualistic-coronations-4893100

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YONATAN L. MORSE (2012). The Era of Electoral Authoritarianism. Cambridge University Press, World Politics, Volume 64, Number 1, January 2012. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/122/article/463566/pdf