Parliamentary democracy good, but not with current breed of leaders

The debate on whether the country should abandon universal adult suffrage in favor of parliamentary democracy is slowly gaining momentum.  The debate, just like many others previously on contentious issues like the scrapping of the presidential term and age limits, started as a rumor.

Under parliamentary democracy, the President is accountable to the popular votes in the August house, who equally can vote him out.  

However, under the Presidential system, the leader is elected by universal adult suffrage and must attain at least 50 percent of the votes to avoid a rerun. While the debate on a parliamentary democracy seems to have caught several people unawares, there has been thinking among some Ugandans on the need to rethink our voting system. This is largely because the majority of voters don’t understand the value of their vote.

To some voters, their vote goes to those with a strong financial muscle as opposed to what they intend to do once voted in office. To such voters, the manifestoes of candidates, mean nothing. Towards the close of last year, Uganda Radio Network, a prime online news agency conducted follow-up Focus group Discussions and Dialogues on how to stop electoral violence in all regions of the country.

At various meetings, some of the participants cited the need to change our electoral system, saying the current system has lost meaning since the electoral process is heavily monetized and only favors those with money. They also said many of the voters are driven by material gains as opposed to the issue raised by the candidates.

Some voters will choose a politician who spends nights with them at a vigil and drinks with them as opposed to his promises. No, wonder some people get into Parliament and leave five years later without uttering a word on the floor of Parliament.

Honestly, this is something that has been bothering me for quite some time.  But my fear is that given the current breed of legislators who are easily bought off to turn a blind eye to contentious issues, parliamentary democracy might not be the magic bullet to our electoral dilemma. The majority of our legislators have been a huge letdown for the country.  

They are driven by personal and party ambitions as opposed to putting the country first. Probably, for parliamentary democracy to work in our case, we need to revisit the qualifications for those seeking election as members of Parliament. We need patriots, people of high integrity who will put the interests of the country above themselves, and party interest in the system to serve the country. Otherwise, we don’t expect much with the current breed of politicians.    

Ahmed Wetaka, [email protected]