Forum for Democratic Change

The Forum for Democratic Change (Swahili: Jukwaa la Mabadiliko ya Kidemokrasia; FDC), founded on 16 December 2004, is one of the main opposition parties in Uganda. The FDC was founded as an umbrella body called Reform Agenda, mostly for disenchanted former members and followers of President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM). Party president Kizza Besigye, formerly a close ally of Museveni, was a candidate in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 presidential elections. In November 2012, Mugisha Muntu was elected as President of the FDC until November 2017 when he was defeated by Patrick Oboi Amuriat the current party President until 2022.

FDC has been one of the greatest challengers to the NRM Party in the 2006, 2011, and 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections. Besigye was the party's presidential candidate, taking 37 per cent of the vote against Museveni's 59 per cent. Besigye alleged fraud and rejected the result.

In the general election of 23 February 2006, the party won 37 out of 289 elected seats. In the presidential election on the same date, Besigye won 37.4 per cent of the vote. In the 2011 election, the party performed worse with Besigye getting 26.01 per cent of the vote and the party winning 34 seats.

The origins of the FDC are intertwined with the history of the ruling NRM led by President Museveni. The NRM through its military wing the National Resistance Army (NRA) fought a successful guerrilla war against the governments of Milton Obote and Tito Okello and came to power in Uganda in 1986. During the guerrilla war, Museveni successfully moulded various interest groups into an effective military machine, and on achieving power, he began to build the NRM into a cohesive political organisation. The transition process and the NRM's desire to broaden its political base revealed other interests within the party and a feeling amongst some senior members of being sidelined.

Museveni had relied heavily on the support of the Tutsi refugees and their descendants who had been forced out of Rwanda by the Hutu majority in the 1960s. During the guerrilla war, the NRA had moved from the central district of Luwero to the west of the country where most of the Tutsis had been recruited. On achieving power, Tutsis like Paul Kagame and Fred Gisa Rwigyema were rewarded with powerful positions within the army and government.

The NRA advance on Kampala was very rapid, and during this process, hundreds of new recruits were incorporated into the NRA. Many of these came from Museveni's own tribe, the Banyankole, and other western tribes like the Batoro. When the NRA advanced back into Buganda through the town of Masaka, their ranks were expanded by Baganda, many who travelled from different parts of Buganda to join the guerrillas. For many of these, the common goal was simply to oust the northern-dominated government. There were also those who saw the opportunity to use the NRA to achieve Buganda's ambitions of autonomy.

Another important development was the NRA recruitment of younger impressionable soldiers who often held Museveni in awe. This did not often go down well with the more senior NRA officers:

The younger educated cadres began to gain more influence in the NRM. Many had only joined the war towards its conclusion or had joined as NRM cadres after the war. This rivalry was often vocal and acrimonious: