Parliament to debate age limit on Monday, says Kadaga
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.
What you need to know:
- Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has ruled that Parliament will debate the age limit report by the legal affairs committee in an extraordinary House sitting on Monday.
Parliament
Parliament’s Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs will on Monday (December 18) table its report on repealing the upper age limit for presidential candidates.
This is a break from the norm; usually, the House receives such reports on Tuesdays through Thursdays with the other days spared for the MPs’ consultations with their constituencies.
Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, says the committee gave her a copy of the report on Wednesday.
“I am giving notice that we shall convene on Monday at nine o’clock in the morning so that we can have sufficient time for debate,” Ms Kadaga said on Thursday (December 14) during her communication from the chair.
“Therefore, Parliament will convene to receive both the report and the Minority Report. Thereafter, debate will ensure…,” she added.
She said Members of Parliament should use the weekend to go through the report so that they can contribute meaningfully to debate on Monday.
Her communication brought to an end speculation about when the report will be tabled and debated.
Over the course of the last four days, concerned citizens, and the media, have been speculating that the Speaker would, on the floor of Parliament, amend the Order Paper, to include the tabling of the committee’s report.
The report, no doubt, is of interest to Ugandans – because it will inform the House’s decision on the bill.
The bill seeks to repeal Article 102 (b) of the Constitution to remove the 75 years old upper cap for presidential candidates.
President Museveni, who critics say will be the beneficiary, about two months back said the upper cap was discriminatory, and thus, contravenes the Constitution.
He has also argued that other countries do not have age limits for their chief executives – so Uganda should not act differently.
It is likely to be a full house on Monday, because the Government, which has an interest in Igara West Member of Parliament, Raphael Magyezi’s Private Member’s Bill to amend the Constitution, will whip its members to attend.
According to a poll conducted by the Daily Monitor in November, support for lifting the age limit is just at 53 per cent.
Up to 18 per cent of the MPs are undecided.
In a contest where money is likely to be an influencer, the opposition is likely to lose the undecided to the ruling National Resistance Movement.
