Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has officially declared that it will not front a presidential flag bearer in the 2021 general election after the party president, Jimmy Akena opted to stand for a Member of Parliament (MP) seat.
Jimmy Akena, while speaking to the media on Wednesday said that he would be standing for Lira East seat instead of the presidency.
He said this is not a new position and the party fully discussed the decision at different levels.
He also denied that UPC has diminished its ambitions of taking over the highest office in the country.
Akena said Opposition political parties need to prioritize where they can invest and avoid going into elections unguided.
The UPC spokesperson Sharon Oyat Arach said that Akena is the party’s only would be candidate in the presidential polls and his change of mind means that the party will now focus on gaining positions at grass root level.
“We shall now focus on gaining full positions at the grass root level like councillors, mayors and MPs. We will not have a presidential candidate,”she noted.
Oyat said the UPC will not support any other candidates either in opposition or from the ruling National Resistance Movement for the presidency.
She said they only bowed out because their president changed his mind a bit late yet the process of choosing another flag bearer will be costly and time consuming.
Currently, UPC has seven members in Parliament. It had 10 in the 9th Parliament and Mr Enap warns that the number will drop further.