ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Uganda. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Uganda. Ugandans do not have the right to select their government through democratic political competition. The country's only open multiparty elections were held in 1961 in preparation for the country's independence from Britain. As in 1996, Ugandans voted for their president and members of parliament in elections without open party competition. Uganda's parliament is considering a draft law proposed by the government that would increase state control over nongovernmental organizations, whose existence and activities are already subject to stringent legal restrictions.
