Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi, who had challenged Gen Muntu for the party presidency, had insisted that though Article 32 of the party constitution provides that the "term of office for all party officials shall be five years renewable only once", Gen Muntu serves out only what had remained of Dr Besigye's five-year term.

A tribunal headed by lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuzi agreed with Mr Mafabi, but a five-member team of party elders led by Mr Augustine Ruzindana, ruled that the National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings that approved election guidelines had "made it clear that the November 22 election was an election for a party president for five years".

Speaking to Sunday Monitor on Tuesday, Mr Amuriat said his intention had been to cut his term short by three years, but that the terms of office of other office bearers ends at the end of this month, which would mean that the next internal election would only be held this year, but the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic had forced the party to put some of its plans on hold.

In the aftermath of the changes, Mr Amuriat was accused of hounding those who had supported Gen Muntu out of positions of leadership, but on December 6, 2018, while addressing his first Special National Council meeting at the party's headquarters at Najjanankumbi, Mr Amuriat said the changes were a "complete functional trinity between the party, Parliament and the Peoples' Government leadership".

FDC seems not to have suffered at the hands of the NRM as much as other political parties such as the Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), but it has also suffered a number of high profile defections such as that of former national vice chairpersons Alex Onzima and John Butime, Ms Betti Olive Kamya, Eriya Kategaya and most recently Mr Jackson Kafuuzi Karugaba and Ms Beatrice Anywar, who were recently appointed to Mr Museveni's Cabinet.