Former East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Member of Parliament and Vice President of the Democratic Party (DP), Fred Mukasa Mbidde, has spoken out following his defeat in the Buweekula County parliamentary race, describing politics as a long-term calling rather than a means of employment.
Speaking during Sanyuka Morning Xpress on Thursday, Mbidde declined to directly comment on the election outcome, noting that politics operates within a predictable electoral cycle.
"In politics, there is a clear calendar, and elections come every five years. I will not comment on the outcome of the results. I'm not in politics for employment; it's a calling, and I will return stronger," he said.
Mbidde also addressed the broader political landscape, particularly the 2026 presidential election, stating that not all opposition figures were opposed to President Yoweri Museveni's victory.
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"We were happy when President Museveni won. That's what we expected and worked for. It is not true that everyone in the opposition wanted Museveni to lose. We will even attend Museveni's victory celebrations," he said.
Mbidde's political career reflects multiple attempts to secure a constituency-based parliamentary seat, though with limited success.
In 2005, he contested for the Makindye West parliamentary seat and lost. Two years later, he was defeated in the Kalungu East parliamentary by-election. During the 2021 general elections, Mbidde ran in Nyendo-Mukungwe, where he was unsuccessful against then National Unity Platform (NUP) Vice President Mathias Mpuuga.
His latest bid in the 2026 general elections for the Buweekula County seat also ended in defeat.
In an interview with a local television station shortly after the Buweekula loss, Mbidde attributed his electoral challenges to the nature of the voting population. He explained that his political successes have largely come in elections where the electorate consisted mainly of voters with at least a Senior Six level of education or its equivalent.
He pointed to his victories as a former Guild President, his two successful elections to the East African Legislative Assembly, where he served for a total of ten years, and his election as Vice President of the Democratic Party at a delegates' conference dominated by highly educated voters, where he was largely unopposed.
Mbidde noted that elections dominated by less-educated voters have not worked in his favor, adding that this pattern made his recent defeat unsurprising to him.
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