Museveni lying on age limit - Besigye
Dr Besigye
Sironko- Dr Kizza Besigye yesterday said Ugandans should not believe President Museveni’s pledge not to seek re-election in 2021 on account of having hit the 75-year-age limit should he win next year’s election.
Mr Museveni, 71, said in a press conference during his tour of West Nile last week that should he be re-elected next year, he would respect the constitutional requirement that a person who is above 75 years cannot contest to become president.
“He [journalist] was saying the Constitution talks of 75 [as the age limit]. Now, what am I planning to do? I will follow the Constitution,” Mr Museveni said.
However, Dr Besigye doubts Mr Museveni’s statement. “When someone is already an adult, he cannot change,” the presidential candidate of the Forum for Democratic Change said. “Do you think Museveni can stop telling lies now?”
‘Don’t believe him’
Speaking at a rally in Budadiri West in Sironko District, Dr Besigye was reacting to a Monday Daily Monitor story in which Mr John Nagenda, a presidential adviser on media, said Mr Museveni would abide by his pledge.
“I wonder whether Nagenda thinks there is any Ugandan who can still listen to Museveni and his last term (talk),” Dr Besigye said.
He was referring to Mr Museveni’s pledge in the 2001 election that he would, if given a “second and last” term, step down in 2006. The Constitution was, however, amended to remove term limits and Mr Museveni stood again.
Dr Besigye also drew in presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi, who was a powerful figure in Mr Museveni’s government until they fell out this term.
“You have heard Mbabazi saying they parted ways because Museveni lied to him that this term was his last,” he said. “He has been doing that for many years.”
Dr Besigye added: “You know when I started opposing Museveni (in 2000/2001), Mbabazi said I had jumped the queue; that he was higher in the succession queue. So he sat in the queue and waited until he also got tired.”
Speaking at a place he called home, because all the MPs and local council leaders are FDC members, Dr Besigye stressed his key messages of “liberation through the ballot, restructuring government and pursuing inclusive growth.”
Budadiri West is represented in Parliament by FDC secretary general Nathan Nandala Mafabi.
He also castigated the President’s pledge to provide three hoes per household in the coming financial year. He said the people of Bugisu had tractor-hire services as early as 1960s, adding that hand-hoes cannot help the agricultural modernisation drive in this century.
“There won’t be hoes in the 2016/17 Budget as Mr Museveni has promised. In the year 2016 and you still put hoes in the budget? He won’t be around to implement that.”
