Ugandan presidential challenger faces tough race

Besigye addresses supporters in Uganda

From CNN Correspondent
Catherine Bond

KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- The man who wants to be Uganda's next president, physician and retired Col. Kizza Besigye, faces a tough race against his former boss, President Yoweri Museveni.

Besigye's resume includes a string of top jobs under Museveni, who has been Uganda's president for 15 years. This election pits the two former colleagues against each other for the nation's presidential post on Election Day, this coming Wednesday.

Besigye has emerged a surprisingly strong contender as the candidate from within who has shaken things up and who draws huge crowds to hear him speak.

However, an opinion poll indicates that Besigye's popularity may be slipping. The survey -- taken a few weeks ago -- shows Besigye and Museveni only 4 percentage points apart.

ELECTION WATCH Uganda presidential elections

Another poll puts Besigye a full 12 percentage points behind Museveni, a gap which, if accurate, could prove difficult to close.

"You ought to be very careful about the opinion polls made here," Besigye told CNN. "You've heard that every place I've been in talking about intimidation. There's a lot of violence against our supporters. People who take opinion polls and they just go and ask 'Whom will you support in the next election?' Those who support us will not say they support us."

In Uganda, a region where coffee farms drive much of the economy, coffee prices have become an important campaign issue. Voters also are calling for more jobs, lower taxes and better public schools.

"Now you imagine the situation when the teacher (has) ... 150 (students)," said Josephine Nalongo, a widow. "But Dr. Besgiye will (reduce that ratio to) 35 children for one teacher. And he has said he will increase teachers' salaries."

Many Ugandans blame Museveni for sending Ugandan troops to neighboring Congo. A troop pullout has just begun.

"Museveni took our children to the Congo," said an unidentified woman. "They died there. Now we are in mourning."

Many Ugandans say they'll vote for Besigye -- not because they disagree with Museveni's policies -- but "because there are some things which he promised to put in practice which have not been put in," explained an unidentified farmer.

Besigye has his own long list of promises, among them, to abolish the small but unpopular graduated tax.

He also says he'll double teachers' pay, sell the presidential jet and fight corruption. A former mayor who is campaigning for Besigye, however, served time in a U.S. prison for fraud.

Besigye's political assets include an untarnished record and his wife, Winnie, who is something of a Hillary Rodham Clinton -- the power behind the scenes and a politician in her own right.

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