Feature: Kizza Besigye, one of eight candidates for Uganda's presidential election

Uganda will on Thursday hold presidential and parliamentary elections in which a total of eight candidates are vying for the east African country's top job.

Kizza Besigye is one of the main opposition presidential candidates, running against incumbent President Yoweri Museveni of the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

Besigye, a retired army officer and former personal physician to Museveni during the latter's five year rebellion in the early 1980s, is the presidential candidate from the main opposition group, the Forum for Democratic Change.

Born on April 22, 1956 in the western Ugandan district of Rukungiri, Besigye lost both of his parents while at primary school.

After obtaining a degree in human medicine in 1980 at Makerere University, Uganda's oldest University, Besigye joined politics as a member of the Uganda Patriotic Movement, an opposition political party which was headed by Museveni then.

He was arrested for his political activities but later escaped from prison and fled to neighboring Kenya where he practiced medicine for a short while before joining Museveni in the bush.

When Museveni came into power in 1986, Besigye rose through different military and government ranks including becoming a minister.

In 1999 he fell out with the ruling government after he wrote a document entitled critiquing government.

He was dragged to a military court martial because serving military officers are not supposed to publicly express their views.

The charges were later dropped after elders from his home area of Rukungiri brokered a deal with Museveni.

On October 20, 2000, at the rank of Colonel, Besigye retired from the army and returned to civilian life. A week later he announced that he would run against Museveni in the 2001 elections. He lost the election.

In March 2001, Besigye petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the election results. The judges ruled that although there had been cheating and widespread irregularities, the election results could not be annulled.

After the elections, Besigye fled to exile in South Africa after being questioned by police over allegations that he was behind a shadowy rebel group, People's Redemption Army (PRA), which was allegedly based in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

He returned from South Africa in October 2005 to contest again for the country's presidency in 2006.

Besigye was arrested and charged with alleged rape and treason for his alleged links to the PRA and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army which was then fighting in the northern part of the country.

The High Court released him on bail just in time for him to contest in the 2006 presidential elections, the country's first multiparty elections after a 25 year ban.

Besigye again in 2011 presidential elections faced off with Museveni, losing for the third straight time to the latter. He has attributed all his losses to alleged vote rigging.

In the last five years, Besigye has faced several arrests by the police for leading protests and defiance campaigns in the country.

Besigye who has been pulling huge crowds throughout his three months campaigns predicts to win the Thursday polls with a landslide victory.

However, different opinion polls have ranked him second after Museveni, while Mbabazi comes third.

Besigye and Mbabazi are the main contenders to Museveni in the much anticipated elections. Enditem