KAMPALA, Feb 10, 2011 (AFP) - Egypt's turmoil may have inspired Uganda's opposition ahead of upcoming polls but President Yoweri Museveni is in little danger, thanks to the army and a dearth of cyber revolutionaries, say analysts.
Like Egypt's embattled president, Hosni Mubarak, Museveni has ruled his country for more than a quarter century and his regime has been accused of egregious corruption and of grooming his son for succession.
Uganda's perennial election runner-up Kizza Besigye has seized on Mubarak's plight to draw parallels back home, hoping a ripple effect could energise his third bid against Museveni in an election on February 18.
"I can't tell you how many of our people are following the events internationally, in Egypt and elsewhere, but ... the conditions are the same in Uganda," the opposition leader told AFP in an interview Wednesday.
He argued that Museveni's 25-year-old authoritarian rule was bringing Ugandans to their knees and that the east African nation was ripe for a revolt.
"The brutality of the state represses people until they explode. And once they explode no amount of brutality can stop them," he said.
But while Egypt's army has vowed not to use force against demonstrators, Uganda experts believe that if the population here was moved to rise up against their rulers, there would be little prospect of the army remaining neutral.
"I can bet you my neck the UPDF (Uganda People's Defence Forces) would side with Museveni. The UPDF is a highly partisan army, that very often behaves like a political militia," Frederick Golooba Mutebi, a professor at the Institute of Social Research in Makerere University told AFP.
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