[1] Mbabazi served as the member of parliament for the Kinkiizi West constituency in Kanungu District, a position held from 1996 until 2016, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Presidency.

On 15 June 2015, Mbabazi declared his intentions to run against Yoweri Museveni for the National Resistance Movement's nomination for president at the party's convention on 4 October 2015.

[13] On 31 July, after much disagreement between top-ranking party officials and Mbabazi himself, the former prime minister declared he would stand as an independent candidate.

[14] His candidature is backed by The Democratic Alliance (TDA), a loose convergence of minor political parties working to win the position of presidency.

[15] Mbabazi has represented Uganda in international fora, including the United Nations Security Council, where he argued for the international community to allow the Uganda People's Defense Force to pursue the Lord's Resistance Army fighters into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.