In hybrid regimes, such as Uganda, opposition parties find themselves in a dilemma: to engage with the undemocratic regime, or not. While taking part in the political process may lend legitimacy to the incumbent, non-participation means conceding the whole public space and risking becoming irrelevant. This article shows that despite the constraints they face, opposition parties still play a role in Uganda, though existing functional frameworks fail to capture it fully. Drawing from original empirical research, I propose an alternative framework more adapted to the context of hybrid regimes and their inherent contradictions. I observe the way two Ugandan opposition parties, the Forum for Democratic Change and the Democratic Party, engage with Museveni’s regime, and analyse the role they can play in such a context. After empirically describing their means of action – running in elections, sitting in Parliament, and marching through streets in protest. My analysis shows that Ugandan opposition parties are unable to fully and meaningfully fulfil ‘classic’ party functions found in the liberal-democratic literature or derived from work on anti-system parties. I therefore suggest a new framework, arguing that opposition parties may perform two main functions: the denunciation of the current regime, and the preparation for succession.