How age limit debate has overshadowed LCI polls

Bare knuckles. Members of Parliament engage in fist-fights during a debate on constitutional amendment that sought to remove the presidential age limit from the Constitution in December last year. PHOTO BY ALEX ESAGALA.

Ugandans may have waited for more than 16 years to elect their representatives at local council level but as the polls draw closer, the politics of the controversial presidential age limit debate seems to have overshadowed and relegated the process of the highly anticipated polls to a by-the-way.

Sunday Monitor has spoken to leaders of political organisations who claim they are unable to organise their supporters and identify candidates without being stopped by police on the premise that they are mobilising masses in support of the popular togikwatako campaign against the lifting of the presidential age limit.
A constitution amendment Bill by Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi to lift the 75 years cap for eligibility for the presidency is currently before the House’s Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, with each MP expected to soon pocket in excess of Shs20m to consult their constituents on the same.

Lawmakers against the Bill, who were violently hounded out of the House on the orders of Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, have already made it clear that they will not take money to facilitate consultations with their constituents. The country will be waiting to see if they can see through this position.

Consultations on
It is these consultations, which have already kicked off in some constituencies since Ms Kadaga sent MPs on a short recess, that the Opposition members accuse their ruling counterparts of using to mop up support for the ruling party candidates in the LCI polls using the State security apparatus and other such resources.
During last week’s independence celebrations, President Museveni warned individuals and groups against sabotaging democracy in the country.
“Democracy is about the harmonious co-existence of contending views.

A democrat is, therefore, a person who disagrees with a view but at the same time defends the right of someone to express the view he or she does not agree with,” President Museveni said.
He added: “…Uganda’s independence and democracy was bought with blood of our patriots. Therefore, nobody will be allowed to undermine it.”
President Museveni’s remarks were true in as far as the Opposition lawmakers in Parliament, who in the face of defeat tried to filibuster and even fight in a futile attempt to stop the tabling of Mr Magyezi’s motion.
The Commander-in-Chief’s remarks, however, were in sharp contrast with the actions of his subordinates, particularly the Inspector General of Police,Gen Kale Kayihura, and some of his officers and men. Gen Kayihura has not shied away from making it known that he will do everything in his power to contain dissenters on the matter.
He was clearer as he spoke at the wedding of a one Edgar Kulaigye last weekend:
“There is no question about the age card, that anyone can…. never mind togikwatako, they are lost in the wilderness because the article they are saying should not be touched, was touched a long time ago, even inside it will be touched... really bankruptcy nani…..just forget them. Let us focus on consolidating what your grandfather; your fathers have contributed to pass the legacy of our country.”

Gen Kayihura, who has in the past been chided by activists and Opposition politicians for what they term as a poor human rights observance record, being partisan and instituting parallel informal groups in the police Force, among others, had earlier praised operatives who raided Parliament and arrested MPs from the chamber, saying they worked on his orders and had acted professionally.

Some of the accusations persist in this latest project to stop any dissent as the presidential age limit is removed from the Constitution and as NRM consolidates efforts to maintain a hold on the local councils. Several ruling NRM groups displayed their support for the removal of the presidential age limit at the independence celebrations in the presence of President Museveni and Gen Kayihura, yet police and other State institutions had warned against partisan campaigns and parallel celebrations on Independence Day.
Since the end of the 2016 presidential polls, President Museveni has been actively campaigning across the country particularly Kampala and Wakiso and has met different groups in the same period. Lately, he has also been using the media, especially radios to push for support for the proposed land amendment Bill. The movements and activities of his opponents continue to be censured by police and other State operatives.

It is the same cover anti-age limit campaigners say police and other State agencies are taking advantage of to prevent them from mobilising supporters for the LCI polls. State officials, who are supposed to be non-partisan such as Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) and their deputies, District Internal Security Officers (DISOs), Gombolola Intelligence Security Officers (GISOs) and Parish Internal Security Officers (PISOs) are reportedly going door-to-door not only marshaling support for the ruling party candidates but in some areas going as far as making sure that candidates against their position don’t vie in the November 21 polls.
Government programmes such as Operation Wealth Creation and other social services are also reportedly being used as bait by the ruling party functionaries or those who claim to work for the same. Even without threats, other individuals fear to lose out on government programmes and services given that voting will be open and people will be able to pin-point who voted for whom.
Democratic Party (DP) secretary general Gerald Siranda says the party has encountered the problem and is most prevalent in Bunyoro, Karamoja, Teso and the entire western sub-regions, which he says is being prepped as an Opposition no go zone.

“In areas of Bunyoro like Kakumiro [District], our people have been threatened but also with the partisan police, it has been very difficult for our branches to even organise for these elections. They don’t differentiate between a DP meeting and a Togikwatako campaign,” he said.
Mr Siranda says he wrote a “general” letter to IGP Kayihura and attached the Electoral Commission roadmap about how the party was to organise for the elections but police continues to interfere with their activities, including last week in Mpigi District where a party activity was thwarted by police.
“You cannot conduct primaries and organise elections while indoors. People must meet, must organise.

It is wrong, we cannot run a political institution on the permission of the police because the police can only come to oversee that there is calm during the process... an election is not only about the results, it is about the process,” he said.
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) acting party president Alice Alaso finds herself and the institution she leads in a similar predicament. On Tuesday, she found a hard time accessing her office at the FDC headquarters in Najjanakumbi. Police occasionally lays siege at political party offices and homes of Opposition leaders and other activists and forbids or restricts activity every time there are reports of demonstrations and other such campaigns by Opposition political activists.
“For us, this even makes our case stronger, Ugandans should not vote for LCs that are NRM-leaning because what this does is to compound an already bad situation. Ugandans should know that the greatest disservice they will do for themselves and the country is to vote NRM LCIs,” she said.

The former Serere Woman MP says the anti-age limit removal campaign and the campaign against the contentious Land Amendment Bill are inseparable from the local council elections and suggests a joint Opposition effort to push for both.

The Ruling NRM party electoral commission chairperson, Mr Tanga Odoi, does not share in the sentiments and predicament of the Opposition. In a short period from now, he says, the country will be painted yellow in the party’s quest to retain a unanimous majority of LCs it inherited from the defunct one party Movement System.

“The NRM as a party rides on the structure of LCs, so we are giving it all the respect. We are only waiting for the budget and you will see the NRM electoral commission everywhere in the country. We are giving it prominence, we have never neglected them because we know the party is founded on grassroots,” he said.

How they started. Originally, the local councils (LCs) were called resistance councils (RCs) because they were created as a political and logistical support system for the National Resistance Army. The 1995 Constitution revised their name and duties.
Duties. They are credited for mobilisation of the local community in law and order matters; law enforcement, gathering of data on crime and establishment of by-laws in their respective communities, among other things.

The LCI and LCII polls
The Electoral Commission-approved programme for the administrative units (village or LCI and parish or LC II) elections 2017 kicked off this week with the recruitment of village election officials.
Election of LC I chairpersons will take place on November 21, with voters lining behind their preferred candidate and consequently counting, filling forms, declaration of winner and an inaugural council meeting. The actual voting in the 7,795 parishes and 59,315 villages, will last only 30 minutes. Each village will be a polling station.
The following day, the process of electing of Parish/Ward (LC II) level will commence with the compilation of the parish/ward (LC II) voters’ register up to November 23. LC II elections will take place on December 7.

Long overdue
Uganda has not conducted elections for LCI and LCII for the last 15 years, the last one having been held in 2001 before the country shifted from the one-party Movement system to the multiparty system of governance.
Attempts to hold the elections in 2006 were unsuccessful after Maj (rtd) Rubaramira Ruranga (pictured right) successfully challenged the legality of the incumbent local councils following the country’s return to the multiparty political system. Court upheld his petition and nullified the local councils and ordered fresh elections under the multiparty system.
Last year, Parliament passed the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2014 providing for lining up behind candidates during the elections. The move was to lower the cost of conducting these elections from Shs505b earlier budgeted. The November poll is expected to cost Shs15.7b.