The Electoral Commission (EC) has ruled out the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) from presenting a presidential candidate in the 2026 elections, citing constitutional violations and binding court orders.
The decisive ruling came after a meeting on Sunday, 21 September, between EC officials and senior UPC figures, among them Jimmy James Michael Akena, Denis Enap Adim, Joseph Pinytek Ochieno, and Peter Walubiri Mukidi. The session, intended to settle which candidate the commission could lawfully recognise, instead laid bare the scale of UPC’s internal divisions.
On Monday, 22 September, EC chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama delivered the commission’s verdict: neither Akena nor Adim qualifies to run as the party’s flag bearer. He advised UPC to honour its own constitution and respect court rulings that had already declared Akena ineligible for re-election.
Court Rulings and Constitutional Breaches
Akena, who has led UPC since 2015, had his nomination nullified by court earlier this year after judges ruled that he had already served the maximum two terms allowed under the party’s constitution. That judgment has not been overturned and remains binding.
Despite this, a controversial virtual delegates’ conference extended Akena’s leadership, in defiance of an interim court order that explicitly barred such a gathering. The EC declared the extension unconstitutional and his subsequent nomination for the 2026–2030 term “illegal and void.”
Adim’s nomination was also struck out, with the EC ruling that it did not meet the requirements set out in the UPC constitution. Meanwhile, Walubiri, another senior figure, was not considered because he never took part in the nomination process.
Escalating Legal Battles
The wrangles trace back to May when Adim challenged Akena’s nomination in court, successfully arguing that his term extension was unlawful. The EC stressed that the entire process breached Section 10 of the Political Parties and Organisations Act, which demands transparent and lawful procedures in party leadership transitions.
Confusion deepened over the weekend as social media reports falsely claimed that Akena had been cleared as the UPC presidential candidate. Joseph Ochieno’s lawyer, Jude Byamukama of JByamukama Advocates, dismissed the claims as “false and misleading.”
With the nomination deadline fast approaching, UPC now faces the grim prospect of sitting out the presidential race for the first time since its founding in the 1960s. For a party once led by Milton Obote, Uganda’s first executive prime minister and two-time president, the decision marks a historic and unprecedented political setback.
