How key election law was passed in 7 minutes

Although Legal Affairs Committee chairman Steven Tashobya had raised a couple of reservations on the Bill in his report, it appears the team abandoned the amendments all together.

For instance the committee had objected in its report to the idea that there are no other viable means of supporting political parties other than state funding, and moved to propose the sourcing of funds from institutions outside government. That proposal never saw the light of day.

The committee had also observed that the Bill does not specifically spell out which elections shall be financed by the government on equal basis as had been proposed in the new law. Mr Tashobya when contacted to comment on Wednesday admitted that the Bill had been passed “quickly.”

“I don’t know why, but yes, it was passed quickly,” he said. Asked to explain what became of his committee’s proposed amendments, the MP could only say, “Please go and look for my Chief Whip, he is my leader in the House.”

‘Ignorant’ opposition
Whip Daudi Migereko said on Wednesday that the opposition did not raise any objection the day the Bill was passed.
Asked whether the decision was not influenced by poor attendance, Mr Migereko said: “All I remember that day is that we handled a lot of business and many people were unanimous.”

Terego MP Kassiano Wadri accused the government of playing “dirty tricks”, admitting that he only “discovered” that the Bill had been passed several weeks later.

“There could have been a laxity on the part of my members who attended in failing to raise objection,” said the Opposition’s Chief Whip, “But there was also a problem of quorum that day.”

He added: “That day we had a meeting for commissioners so we came to the House late. I can tell you that even when we broke for Christmas I didn’t know that that Bill had been passed. I only discovered later.”