Pastors want MPs to vote by roll call

Anti-gay activists hold placards as they march to Parliament yesterday. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

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Pastors say MPs should vote openly and definitively respond to queries over lack of quorum and end the controversy surrounding the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Pastors under the Portbell Road Pastors Fellowship have petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, demanding that MPs vote by roll call when the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill is re-introduced in Parliament to expose legislators opposed to the law.

Under the House Rules of Procedure, voting can be done by voice voting, secret voting and the roll call and tally system. When the Bill was passed last December, MPs voted by voices where the Speaker called those in favour of the law to say “Aye” and those against to say “No”.

Premier Amama Mbabazi’s caution about the lack of quorum was ignored by Ms Kadaga despite a provision under the House rules that stipulate that when a question over quorum is raised, the Speaker is obligated to temporarily suspend proceedings to ascertain the matter.

The lack of quorum in the House on that day triggered a court suit and the Constitutional Court ruled early this month that the passing of the Bill without the required quorum was an illegality that the Speaker ignored and nullified the law.

Yesterday, the pastors presented a petition to the Speaker demanding that to put to rest the controversy surrounding the law, MPs should vote openly and definitively respond to queries over lack of quorum.
“We appreciate the act of boldness and we want to see all MPs in the House. Let them support it by the show of hands so that we can know who is on our side and who is on the side of homosexuals,” Mr Wilber Mukisa, the chairperson of the group, said.

Ms Kadaga told the pastors to appreciate the circumstances that MPs work under, revealing that the pro-gay lobby groups would reach out to President Museveni every time the Bill was put on the Order Paper.
“The law had spent seven years. Everytime they put it on the Order Paper, they alert the President and stop the people [MPs] from coming. Parliament is with the people,” the Speaker said.

Asked how the law will be re-introduced in Parliament, Ms Kadaga said the Constitutional Court’s ruling did not refer to the merits of the now debunked Act. “What did the judgment say; that we should not attach this matter again? It was not heard on merit. The merit of the people of Uganda is still alive,” she said.