The role of religion in Uganda's 2016 elections

What is it about?

Religion plays a very important role in African politics. Our study analysed how religion influenced elections in Uganda, a country that has been led by the same president since 1986. We claim that for politics to work for the good of common people, people must be allowed to freely say what they think about politics. Religious actors and religious ideas can serve to increase the space for political debate, or to decrease it. We argue that often both things happen at once, as they did in Uganda in 2016. On the whole, however, in the 2016 elections, religion decreased the space for political debate. In this way, religious actors and religious ideas helped Uganda's president Museveni maintain his hold on power.

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Why is it important?

By focusing on religion, the study highlights an important aspect of African politics which is too often forgotten in political analyses of the continent.