Did age limit issues decide Jinja election?

National Resistance Movement’s Nathan Igeme Nabeta on Thursday lost the Jinja Municipality East by-election to FDC’s Paul Mwiru by a margin of 1611 votes. He polled 6,654 votes against Mr Nabeta’s 5,034.
Other candidates were Monica Abuze who polled 18 votes; Isabirye Hatimu Mugendi with 7 votes; Faizal Mayemba Masaba with 117 votes; Paul Mugaya Geraldson with 48 votes; Richard Henry Nyanzi with 47 votes; and Francis Wakabi with 24 votes.
President Museveni was in Jinja to campaign for his party’s candidate ahead of the by-election, just like all Opposition politicians – former Forum for Democratic Change presidents Kizza Besigye and Mugisha Muntu, and current party president Amuriat Oboi were there to root for Mr Mwiru. Mr Mwiru has got into the habbit of sneaking in by-elections.
In 2012, he was voted in after court threw out Mr Nabeta over academic qualifications, and this time Mr Nabeta was thrown out over election irregularities.
The mood was generally hostile for Mr Nabeta with the by-election coming hardly three months after the removal in December of age limits for the presidency that cleared the way for Mr Museveni, who would be barred from running again in 2021 because of age.
The Opposition framed the election as a referendum on whether the voters approved of the lifting of the age limits, which Mr Nabeta voted for.
During the campaigns, he actually denied ever having supported the lifting of age limits for the sake of it.
He said he only voted for the amendment because it also involved the return of the two-term limit for the presidency.
But the damage seemed to have been done anyway.
Mr Crispin Kaheru, the National Coordinator of the Citizen Coalition for Electoral Democracy [CCEDU], said the Jinja Municipality East by-election was about national issues and not local issues, saying the key driver was the presidential age limit amendment.
“The opposition was talking about how bad it was to amend the constitution of Article 102b, it was also talking about the disadvantages of extending the tenure of presidency from five years to seven years. These are some of the issues that connect directly with people,” Mr Kaheru said.
Matters were not helped by a statement President Museveni made when he campaigned for Mr Nabeta, saying voters should vote for him since a “sleepy” ruling party MP was “better” than an active opposition MP.
This was used in the dying hours to woo voters that the President despised them. Ms Salamu Musumba, the FDC vice chairperson for eastern region, attributed her party’s success to what she called NRM’s failure to deliver services to the voters.

The debate

1. The mood was generally hostile for Mr Nabeta with the bye-election coming hardly three months after the removal in December of age limits for the presidency that cleared the way for Mr Museveni, who would be barred from running again.
2. The Opposition framed the election as a referendum on whether the voters approved of the lifting of the age limits, which Mr Nabeta voted for.