Electoral Commission Disqualifies UPC from 2026 Presidential Polls

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1138 EAT on Tuesday 23 September 2025

The Electoral Commission (EC) has disqualified the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) from fielding a presidential candidate in the 2026 elections, citing internal constitutional violations and binding court rulings that have plunged the party into further turmoil.

The decision came after a tense meeting on Sunday, September 21, between Electoral Commission (EC) officials and key Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) leaders, including Jimmy James Michael Akena, Denis Enap Adim, Joseph Pinytek Ochieno, and Peter Walubiri Mukidi.

What was intended as a session to clarify the party’s legitimate presidential flag bearer instead laid bare the deep divisions within UPC’s leadership.

The following day, EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama announced the commission’s ruling: neither Akena nor Adim meets the qualifications to contest as UPC’s presidential candidate in the 2026 elections.

Justice Simon Byabakama urged the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) to respect its constitution and comply with existing court rulings governing the party’s leadership.

Central to the dispute is High Court Miscellaneous Cause No. 148 of 2025, which ruled that Jimmy James Michael Akena had already served the maximum two terms allowed under the UPC constitution. This judgment, which nullified Akena’s nomination, remains binding as it has not been overturned.

The Electoral Commission also condemned the party’s controversial virtual extraordinary delegates’ conference that extended Akena’s presidency despite an interim court order prohibiting such a meeting. Byabakama noted that this action violated Articles 25(2) and 25(3) of the UPC constitution.

Consequently, the commission declared Akena’s nomination for the 2026–2030 term illegal and void. Meanwhile, Denis Enap Adim’s nomination was invalidated for failing to meet the requirements stipulated in Article 13(5) of the UPC constitution.

Senior party figure Peter Mukidi Walubiri was not considered in the Electoral Commission’s decision, as he did not participate in the nomination process for UPC party president. The party’s leadership crisis has been simmering for months.

In May, Denis Enap Adim successfully challenged Jimmy Akena’s nomination in court, arguing that Akena’s extension of his presidency was unconstitutional. The Electoral Commission supported the court’s findings, noting that the process violated Section 10 of the Political Parties and Organisations Act, which governs internal party leadership transitions.

Amid the ongoing dispute, false claims circulated on social media suggesting that the EC had cleared Akena as UPC’s presidential flag bearer. However, Jude Byamukama of JByamukama Advocates, counsel for Joseph Ochieno, promptly dismissed the reports as baseless and misleading.

With the nomination deadline fast approaching, the Uganda People’s Congress now faces the prospect of being locked out of the 2026 presidential race—a historic setback for one of the country’s oldest political parties, once led by Uganda’s first executive prime minister and president, Dr. Apollo Milton Obote.

According to The Observer, if the Electoral Commission’s ruling is upheld, the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC)—a party that once shaped the country’s political destiny—could, for the first time, miss a presidential election. The moment would mark a historic low point in the slow decline of a movement that once embodied Uganda’s aspirations for independence and self-governance.

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