Museveni’s NRM party still has huge support in rural Uganda
Museveni and supporters during campaigns in the Northern district of Lira, Uganda. PHOTO | FILE
Uganda’s National Resistance Movement has always claimed to be the party of the rural poor. It is a claim that has its roots in Yoweri Museveni’s early radical politics; and since the 1990s, it has been the standard riposte of the NRM to political challenges — from Paul Ssemogerere’s presidential bid in 1996 to the current election campaigns.
Results from a recent survey designed by us suggest that there is some truth to this claim. Of course, most people in Uganda are classified as (rural) according to the country’s population census (the categorisation is based on population density), and so the majority of support for all the candidates is from rural voters.
