Museveni and external backers have made elections meaningless and wasteful
Museveni who was unpopular in student, youth and party politics before becoming president has remained so since 1986. After hard political and military campaign, Museveni was disappointed and humiliated at the Moshi conference when he failed to get elected to either of the two most important positions of leader of the transition team to replace Amin or chairman of the military commission. During the transition period (1979 to 1980), he also realized that he could not lead either UPC or DP parties. Consequently, he formed his own party – Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) to contest the 1980 elections. UPM won one parliamentary seat! Museveni concluded that he would never realize his dream of becoming president or any other public office through the free will of the people of Uganda. He decided he would use force, bribes and tricks to achieve his goals.
That is how he began the destructive guerrilla war that lasted five years. He deliberately destroyed Luwero to put blame on Obote and have him overthrown (EIR 1997). Knowing that Baganda and Catholics were unhappy with Obote and his UPC government, Museveni tricked them that he would provide military backing to get them into power if they came together and form a political movement. Museveni showed no external interest in wanting the post of president for himself. He presented himself as a liberator with no political ambitions.