Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni will seek re-election for a seventh term in polls due early next year, according to a senior official from the ruling party.

Museveni was widely expected to run again but this is the first confirmation from his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

The country will hold general elections in January 2026, in which voters will choose both the president and lawmakers.

Yoweri Museveni, 80, has held power in Uganda since 1986. He is the fourth longest-ruling leader in Africa after Teodoro Obiang from Equatorial Guinea (46 years), Paul Biya from Cameroon (43 years) and Denis Sassou-Nguesso from the Congo Republic (41 years).

Under his tenure, the NRM has changed the 1995 constitution twice to allow him to extend his rule.

The 2005 amendment removed presidential terms limit and in 2017, the Ugandan Parliament voted to withdraw age eligibility requirements.