Age Limit law: EC ready for a referendum

Kampala- The Electoral Commission (EC) says 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; the Constitutional Amendment Act commonly known as the ‘Age Limit Act’, 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.

President Museveni assented to the Act days after it had been passed by the 10th Parliament.
“We have not received the new law in order to start preparations for a referendum but we are set and ready immediately we receive it, we shall prepare our road map to have the referendum done,” Mr Taremwa added in a telephone interview.

According to Mr Taremwa, it is expensive to hold a referendum because EC needs money to fund activities such as printing ballot papers, and there is need for a question to be formulated and ample time to sensitise the voters across the country.

He said a referendum law operationalises Article 225(1) of the Constitution, which directs that Parliament shall by law make provisions for the right of citizens to demand the holding by the Electoral Commission of a referendum, whether national or in any particular part of Uganda, on any issue.

But some Opposition MPs argue that the decision to extend the term of MPs and the President from five to seven years should not benefit the current Parliament but subsequent parliaments after 2021.

“All the constitutional changes have been done without consulting the people who voted us into Parliament, it is greed for power and money and EC must take us back to a referendum to involve the voters if power really belongs to the people,” said Mr Jack Wamanga, MP Mbale municipality.

Blamed
The president of the FDC party, Mr Patrick Amuriat Oboi, said instead of amending Article 102 (b), the MPs also smuggled in amendment of Article 105(1).

“Article 105(1), provision requires a referendum and MPs cannot just sit and amend it without involving the people. In terms of constitutionalism, it is wrong because you should not make a law to benefit you as individuals but that does not matter in the regime anymore,” Mr Amuriat said.

Mr Norbert Mao, the DP president, said under Articles 1 and 2 of the Constitution, sovereignty is vested in the people.

“And this means that if the people give somebody a mandate of five years, MPs cannot assume the sovereignty of the people under the guise of a constitutional amendment to indirectly elect the president and themselves for more two years,” he said.

He added that MPs have become commission agents who are rewarded by President Museveni for marketing and voting during controversial bills in Parliament.

Call for referendum
The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Ms Winnie Kiiza, insists that Ugandans should be given the chance to choose whether to extend presidential and parliamentary term limits to seven years.

“These people must know that they are abusing the Constitution and history will follow them up, they have amended the Constitution in piecemeal to serve their own personal interests,” Ms Kiiza said on phone.

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