Isolate pro-age limit MPs,FDC

Forum for Democratic Change party president Patrick Amuriat Oboi. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

Kampala- Opposition Forum for Democratic Change Party has embarked on a campaign to isolate all Members of Parliament who voted in favour of the lifting of the presidential age limit.
Addressing journalists at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi on Monday, the FDC party president, Mr Patrick Amuriat Oboi, all Ugandans should isolate the 317 legislators who went against the public will and voters for their selfish interests.

“The above MPs should be treated as outcasts in our society because they murdered the Constitution which is going to affect all of us and those in the next generation. They should not be allowed to speak during public functions such as burials,” Mr Amuriat said.
He added: “We need to teach them a lesson that whatever they did was uncalled for. This will serve as a warning to other upcoming legislators who will endeavour to make such controversial laws.”
Mr Amurait said as the party, they will mobilise and teach Ugandans during different rallies on how those MPs should be isolated and build resistance against the Constitution Amendment Act.
The party also said they will offer legal support to individuals and petitioners who have gone to courts of law protesting the Constitution amendment.

The party alongside its former presidential candidate and founder, Dr Kizza Besigye, had planned to announce other activities today as regards their protest over the Constitution amendment, but Mr Amuriat said it will not be possible because of the burial for former Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo. Parliament on December 20, 2017 voted by majority of 317 MPs against 97 to remove the 75-year age limit on the presidency and extend the term of MPs from five to seven years.
President Museveni on December 27 assented to the controversial Constitution Amendment Bill 2017, popularly known as the age limit bill.

Legal support
At the same press conference, Mr Amuriat revealed that the party will take police and government to court to compensate Ugandans who were injured during the Opposition’s Togikwatako campaigns across the country.
“We have opened a toll free line to enable Ugandans who were injured during the Togikwatako campaign to access legal assistance. We have also started gathering evidence on those who were injured with the tear gas canisters and we shall make sure that individual police officers and government compensates the victims,” Mr Amuriat said.
Six legislators who were suspended during the age limit debate yesterday revealed that they were in the final stages of filing a petition before the Constitutional Court challenging the law.

The suspended MPs are Allan Ssewanyana of Makindye West, Ibrahim Ssemujju of Kira municipality, Mubarak Munyagwa of Kawempe North, Gerald Karuhanga of Ntungamo Municipality, Jack Odur Lutanywa of Kibanda South, and Anthony Akol from Kilak North.
The Electoral Commission last week said it is ready for a referendum on the extension of the five-year term for president to seven years.

The EC spokesperson, Mr Jotham Taremwa, who said they are yet to receive the new law, noted that as the Commission they cannot speculate and that they cannot use information provided by the media to give comments on the road map to the referendum.
“We shall wait until we get the law and then we give you the road map,” he told Daily Monitor on Thursday.