Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday sought nomination for a seventh term, a move that would bring him closer to five decades in power in the East African country.

Although he was widely expected to run for office again, the first confirmation was made last week by his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM).

A report by Reuters says rights groups have long expressed fear of “mass atrocities” in Uganda ahead of the election in January next year, with a president seeking a seventh term, a crackdown on the opposition and violent threats from the heir apparent. He launched the process with a voter registration drive last week.

The opposition says hundreds of their supporters disappeared or were killed during the last presidential election in 2021 when musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine presented the biggest threat yet to Museveni’s reign.

Museveni, 80, has defied calls for retirement as critics warn that he has veered into authoritarianism with virtually no opposition, including within his governing National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. He has been in power since 1986 and is Africa’s fourth longest-ruling leader. The ruling party has changed the constitution twice in the past to allow him to extend his rule.

On Saturday, Museveni was welcomed by a large crowd of supporters as he went to collect nomination papers from the party’s offices in Kampala, the capital. He said in a speech to his followers that, if re-elected, one of his goals is to fight official corruption.

“In this time I want us really to wipe out corruption,” he said.

It was not the first time Museveni was promising to fight corruption since he came to office. His own family – wife Janet, children, brothers and sisters, cousins and in-laws – have been implicated in corruption, but he often shields them from criminal justice.

In a video posted late on Monday by state broadcaster Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC)BC on social media platform X, the chairperson of the ruling party’s electoral body Tanga Odoi said Museveni would pick up forms on Saturday June 28 to represent the party in the polls.

“The president … will pick (up) expression-of-interest forms for two positions, one for chairperson of the party and the other to contest if he is given chance for presidential flag bearer,” Odoi said.

Museveni first took power as head of a rebel force in 1986. He has since been elected six times, although recent elections have been marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging. His main opponent in the last election was the popular entertainer known as Bobi Wine, who has also declared his candidacy in the polls set for January.

Uganda will hold its general election in January, in which voters will also elect lawmakers. NRM and other political parties are at present vetting and clearing their candidate for the polls.

Museveni’s closest opponent will be pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine who came second in the last polls in 2021 and has already confirmed his intention to run in 2026.

Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has seen many associates jailed or go into hiding as security forces cracked down on opposition supporters. Museveni has dismissed Wine as “an agent of foreign interests” who can’t be trusted with power.

Wine rejected the 2021 results, saying his victory had been stolen through ballot stuffing, intimidation by security forces and other irregularities. He has been arrested many times on various charges, but has never been convicted. He insists he’s running a nonviolent campaign.

The popular youthful leader, who has survived alleged assassination attempts, is not hopeful for the 2026 vote.

“As the opposition and I have experienced the most horrific treatment from the government and we know they can even do worse things, including killing me… we don’t expect the coming elections to be better,” Wine says in a report published by Nigerian newspaper, The Punch.

“(Museveni) is aware his government has no legitimacy and is disliked by the population and can only use more violence to ensure he remains in power,” Wine is quoted by AP as saying.

He added: “We are ready to carry the struggle to liberate our country, no matter how much we get into harm’s way.”

The president’s son, heir apparent and head of the armed forces, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, wrote of Wine on X this month: “If Mzee (Museveni) was not there, I would cut off his head today.”

Wine said he didn’t take the message seriously, “but they are a pointer of what the regime of his father can do”.

Another former presidential candidate, Kizza Besigye, was kidnapped while visiting Kenya in November and spirited back to Kampala, where he now faces charges including treason that carries a potential death penalty.

Museveni’s son, army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has asserted his wish to succeed his father, raising fears of hereditary rule.

Dr Besigye, has been jailed since November over alleged treason charges his lawyers say are politically motivated. Besigye, a physician who retired from Uganda’s military at the rank of colonel, is a former president of the Forum for Democratic Change party, for many years Uganda’s most prominent opposition group.

Decades ago, Museveni himself had criticised African leaders who overstayed their welcome in office. In Uganda, lawmakers did the same thing for him when they jettisoned the last constitutional obstacle – age limits – for a possible life presidency.

Rights activists and critics have long accused Museveni of using patronage and security forces to maintain his grip on power but he has denied the accusations and says his long rule is due to popular support.

Thirty-six members of the Forum for Democratic Change, an opposition party, were also abducted in Kenya while holding a leadership seminar in July and face terrorism charges in Uganda.

George Kanyeihamba, a former Supreme Court judge is quoted by AFP as saying: “Violence has become part and parcel of electioneering” under Museveni and only a “miracle” would change that in 2026.

Emmanuel Dombo, spokesman for the ruling National Resistance Movement, denied all the allegations, saying the party had “consistently promoted non-violent elections.”

“While the government and our party promote the message of peaceful elections, our opponents have been promoting messages of violence,” he said.

The US-based Holocaust Memorial Museum recently put out a report warning of possible “mass atrocities” around the election. It said uncertainty about what would happen after Museveni’s death was heightening tensions, combined with “growing disputes over corruption, inadequate public services, and poor management of land and natural resources”.

Report author Ashleigh Landau said the government’s “harsh response” to protests was the key driver of violence.

“If these protests were to continue and grow in size, the government may perceive Bobi Wine as a bigger threat to their regime and crack down much more harshly on them,” she said.

The East African country has never seen a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.

• A Tell Media report