[6] In the presidential election of the same date, UPC candidate Miria Obote, the former first lady, won 0.8 percent of the vote.

[7] The UPC dominated Ugandan politics from independence until 1971,[8] when Milton Obote was overthrown by Idi Amin.

Although led by a northerner (Milton Obote), the UNC appeared more modernist and accommodating and attracted many southerners particularly in the east.

Kiwanuka was on the verge of becoming the first prime minister of independent Uganda when he was thwarted by a surprising alliance between the UPC and Kabaka Yekka.

In return, Obote offered the Kabaka a ceremonial role in the new administration and the retention of all royal powers.

As his unpopularity grew Obote increasingly turned to his Northern home support rather than trying to strengthen the party in the South.

[citation needed] In the elections of 1980, there was overwhelming suspicion that the UPC had rigged the result with the help of the Military Junta.

This perception was further enhanced when Obote appointed the head of the Military Junta, Paulo Muwanga as his Vice President when the UPC was declared the winner of the elections.

A civil war broke out in Uganda when Yoweri Museveni rejected the result and went to the bush to fight the government.

[7][14] Yoweri Museveni's eventual success was due to the North/South divide that the UPC had helped foster in Uganda.

This time they turned to Museveni's main opponent Kizza Besyigye (from the South) who led the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).

After the elections, the party suffered many high-level defections to Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement and to the FDC.

Otunnu served under Tito Okello as Foreign Minister and is seen by some as part of the putsch that overthrew the last UPC government in 1985.