Parliament gazettes Opposition reforms Bill

The Opposition camp in Parliament is set to present alternative electoral reforms in a Private Member’s Bill that seeks to shake up the structure of government and composition of the House.

This comes after the Clerk to Parliament, Ms Jane Kibirige, gazetted the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2019 in the Uganda Gazette of December 13, as a proposed legislation coming up in the House.

“The clerk has gazetted my Bill although the process is not yet complete because we still await the full publication of the Bill itself,” said Ndorwa East Member of Parliament (MP) Wilfred Niwagaba.

Mr Niwagaba, who was granted leave of Parliament early September to be able to table a Private Member’s Bill, has not had an easy ride on having the Bill gazetted after government declined to issue a Certificate of Financial Implication.

Mr Niwagaba, who is also the Shadow Attorney General, got a breakthrough on December 3 when the deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah evoked Section 76(4) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 which provides that a certificate shall be deemed issued if the Ministry of Finance does not issue one in 60 days after leave was granted to a Private Member.

Speaking to Daily Monitor yesterday, Mr Niwagaba said the Clerk has assured him that the Bill including all the clauses that carry the proposed amendments in the Constitution will be published today.
“They have promised to publish it tomorrow (today) and only then I will seek space on the Order Paper for the Bill’s First Reading” he said.

The Shadow Cabinet led by Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Ms Betty Aol Ochan, spent the weekend in a retreat in Entebbe to find a harmonised position on how to mobilise for support of the Bill when it finally makes it to the floor of Parliament.

The bill

If passed, the Bill would cause a major shakeup in the executive by repealing the Office of the prime minister and vice president, with the two roles being carried out by a deputy president elected together with the President. The Bill proposes the reduction of the size of government to 21 Cabinet ministers and 21 State ministers who will not be appointed from among elected MPs.

Other proposals; public vetting of chairperson and member of the Electoral Commission in a process led by the JSC; reinstating presidential term limits; holding presidential, parliamentary and Local Government elections on same day; and, allowing any registered voter other than a presidential candidate to challenge outcome of presidential polls in court.

The Bill also seeks to scrap army representation in Parliament; scrapping office of RDCs; making the LoP, AG and the deputy as well as all ministers ex-officio MPs; and, creating a Speaker’s Panel to comprise the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and at least four other MPs elected from both sides of the House, each capable of presiding over plenary sessions in the absence of the two principals.

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