Three's a Crowd in Love and Politics

This election in Uganda may sometimes appear to be National Geographic material, but look beyond the exotic, and you'll discover National Enquirer territory.

The Karamajong tribe, whose members usually go around naked, two weeks ago dressed up to greet President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who had come to town on a campaign swing. Young women in red-checked wrap skirts with layered necklaces of bright beads sang him a welcome song as they jumped straight up in the air. Male dancers wore animal skins and crowned their heads with gracefully curved, white ostrich feathers. All greeted Museveni with a two-word English slogan, in fact, the only words in English they know, "No change! No change!"

In the countryside, love overflows for Museveni, the guerrilla leader who shot his way into power in 1986 to give Uganda 15 years of rare stability and relative prosperity. But a love turned sour is facing him among the ranks of his opponents. His main challenger is Kizza Besigye, Museveni's ex-physician and former comrade-in-arms. He has nothing of Museveni's charisma. But he does happen to have a very interesting woman at his side-his wife of 2 1/2 years, Winnie. She has charisma to spare. Once even Museveni thought so. The pertinent and prurient detail here is that when Museveni became President in 1986, Winnie moved into the State House with him, though Museveni was already married. The following year, however, Museveni decided he wanted to accommodate their relationship by keeping Winnie as wife No. 2, leaving the No. 1--and the legal--spot for Janet, the First Lady recognized by his Protestant congregation. It is not an uncommon solution to libidinal dilemmas in many parts of the world. But Winnie was implacable and left him.

Now, as the wife of the leading opposition candidate, Winnie Byanyima has nothing but derision for her ex-lover. "Museveni has copied all our ideas because he has none of his own," she proclaims. "Let's send Museveni back to his cattle farm for a long rest!" There is a lot of mud to sling at Museveni, even without mentioning sex (everyone knows about the Winnie affair, but no one would dare make it a political issue). Uganda's level of corruption is one of the highest on a continent not known for aboveboard dealings. Museveni's expensive military adventurism in neighboring Congo has not been popular in the urban areas, where the need for the creation of new jobs is desperate as unemployment among the young soars. Winnie and her husband the doctor play up all of this. "I didn't plan to do this," Kizza Besigye says of his candidacy, "but frankly, many of us feel that we have run into a brick wall with Museveni. He's arrogant. He's isolated. He's too long in power. This was the only way left to get his attention."

Museveni waves away the barbs and the electoral threats posed by his rivals. "I'm not bothered by Besigye," he says. "It's good to have these kinds of people. They bring up issues that should be addressed. The election has been a good cleansing process." And then Museveni proceeds to get a few things off his chest. "Besigye is suffering from aids," he says, a remark he has delivered a number of times on the stump. "And Winnie is just a nasty lady." Besigye refuses to address that particular accusation. (He and Byanyima have a son Anselm, born two months after they married.) As for Byanyima, last year she floated the idea of running for President herself. After she chose not to, her husband declared his candidacy.

While the level of free and fair dialogue remains remarkable for such an untried and multitribal democracy, the possibility of violence constantly simmers below the surface in Uganda. There have been kidnappings and beatings of supporters of both men. Museveni has yet to explain convincingly why he had a Besigye campaign official arrested two weeks ago. Tales of voter intimidation are legion. Both Museveni and Besigye continually ask their supporters to stay calm. But aggressive government security officers and the angry, jobless young men who jam Besigye's rallies keep nerves on edge. The election is March 12. But Dorothy Parker provided the lesson a long time ago, "Scratch a lover, and find a foe."