Ugandan exile wants to reinstate the two-term presidential limit

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has said he will reinstate the two-term presidential limit lifted by parliament if he wins power in next year's polls. His Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party is expected to pick him as their candidate in the next few days. Speaking to huge crowds on his return from exile, he denied allegations of involvment in armed rebellion.

He described his former ally President Yoweri Museveni as a dictator who misused power to harass the opposition.

Once Mr Musveni's doctor, he became his political opponent and fled after the 2001 polls saying his life was in danger.

In a letter to cabinet colleagues last week, Mr Museveni - who came to power 19 years ago - said Dr Besigye could face criminal charges if he came back.

Asked by the BBC on the day of Dr Besigye's return whether he would face arrest, Mr Museveni said: "I don't pick up people. This is the work of the police. If there's anybody with a case, it's the police, not me." Dr Kizza Besigye told the BBC's Network Africa programme that he would "without a doubt" bring back term limits removed from the 1995 constitution by MPs earlier this year.

“Everything... has pointed now for the need now to have these term limits," he said.

Any change of this kind should have been approved by the people not just parliament, he said.

"Nobody carried out a poll to know really how many people support that kind of change. Don't forget that the term limits were imposed through a unanimous process only 10 years ago," he said.

The BBC's Will Ross at Entebbe Airport when Dr Besigye landed on Wednesday, said he was in a defiant mood.

"Many of our supporters have been continuously arrested and detained in various prisons in Uganda. Some have been in prison for more than three years without being tried. Political intimidation and prosecution is rife throughout the country," he said, reports BBC. I.L.