MPs defend right to quit parties before elections

The Parliamentary Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has rejected a proposal by government seeking to block members of political parties to contest as independents in both presidential and parliamentary elections.

This is according to a report of the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the five electoral reform Bills that were tabled by government in July last year.
In the report seen by Daily Monitor, the committee has rejected the proposal that seeks to compel members who want to join other parties to first get clearance from their original parties 12 months before the election.

The MPs argue that if it is passed, the amendment would contravene Article 29 of the Constitution which guarantees freedom of association and expression, and also would conscript people into political parties against their will.

The MPs also argued that the proposal contravenes Article 72 of the Constitution which guarantees a person’s right to stand for election as a candidate independent of a political party or organisation.

“The Constitution does not impose any specific limitations on a person intending to stand in a presidential election other than those that apply generally to all persons in Uganda, irrespective of their political affiliation. The proposal to require an independent candidate to only be eligible to stand in a presidential election twelve months after ceasing being a member of a political party or organisation before nomination day is foreign to the Constitution as eligibility criteria,” report reads in part.

“The above provisions will have the effect of conscripting a person to remain a member of a political party against his or her wishes contrary to the Constitutional guarantee of the person’s right to association,” it adds.

The proposed electoral reforms are comprised in the Presidential Elections Amendment Bill 2019, Parliamentary Elections Amendment Bill 2019, Electoral Commission Amendment Bill 2019, Political Parties and Organisations Amendment Bill 2019, and Local Government Amendment Bill, 2019.

Parliament is set to receive the report of the committee chaired by Mr Jacob Oboth-Oboth (West Budama South, Ind) when the Bills are read for the second time before being debated and subsequently passed.

The government had in both the Presidential Elections Amendment Bill 2019 and Parliamentary Elections Amendment Bill 2019 proposed that anyone seeking to contest as an independent presidential or parliamentary candidate, he or she must first cease to be a member of a political party 12 months to nominations.
However, most of the stakeholders felt the proposal was intended to block people who may be “rigged or cheated” in primaries to contest as independents.

Most independent MPs in the current Parliament had participated in the primaries in their respective parties but lost and decided to run in the general elections on individual merit.
One of those is Mr Oboth-Oboth who has been elected to Parliament twice as an Independent after failing to win the NRM primaries.

Currently, the law allows MPs to join another party 12 months to the next elections without a requirement of first getting clearance from their original parties.
Nominations for presidential candidates for the 2021 elections are expected to take place from August 20 to 21 this year whereas MPs will be nominated a week earlier, according to the Electoral Commission roadmap.

The committee has supported the use of technology in conducting the elections but rejected the proposal by government to allow the Electoral Commission to deliver election materials like ballot papers ‘anytime” before the polling day.

Fears
The MPs say delivering the materials anytime before the polling day may lead to delays in voting but called for retention of the current provisions that election materials be delivered 48 hours to the polling time.
Voting for presidential and parliamentary candidates in some parts of Kampala and Wakiso districts was disrupted in February 2016 after EC delivered materials on the polling day. Some polling stations voted a day after.

“Therefore amending the provision as proposed by the Bill will be legislating for inefficiency, incompetence and negligence. It is important to note that during the 2016 elections, there was a delay in delivering voting material to certain polling stations, including Kampala and Wakiso,” the committee observed.

Report highlights

The committee supports the establishment of Electoral Reforms Committee whose activities shall include receiving proposals for law reforms from the public, election observers, political parties, civil societies and other stakeholders, including courts.

The committee also supported the proposal to introduce the use of technology in election management. The committee also supported the proposal to have returning officers and assistant returning officers to be appointed by the Electoral Commission. In the Local Government Amendment Bill 2019, the committee has supported the proposal that before creating a local government unit (districts, sub-counties/town councils and municipalities), there needs to be consultations with the Minister for Finance.

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