Parliament has on Wednesday passed the Constitution Amendment (No.2) Bill, 2017 popularly referred to as Age limit Bill.
This means that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni can still contest for office in 2023 at the age of 77 year for two terms (14 years).
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga announced that 315 MPs voted in favour of the Bill which constitutes more than two-thirds required vote. 62 voted against the Bill while 2 abstained.
While at the Committee of the Whole House, the legislators agreed to extend their parliamentary tenure with immediate effect from the current 5years to 7years. This means that MPs in the 10th Parliament will appear in the ballot in 2023 rather than 2021.
This clause prompted protests from some opposition MPs who insisted that the amendment should only take effect after the expiration of the current term of MPs in 2021. However, their submissions could not bear any fruits as the majority voted in their disfavor.
Whereas the MPs also agreed to extend presidential term to 7years, the matter will only be decided in a referendum as stipulated in article 260 of the 1995 Constitution.
Parliament agreed to set a lower age limit in accordance with article 59 which grants a right to a person of 18years to vote in any election in Uganda and removed the upper age restriction which is at 75.
As passed, article 102(b) will now read to say, “A person is not qualified for election as President unless that person is not less than 18years.”
Despite scrapping age limit and lifting parliamentary tenure from 5 to 7years, the MPs also agreed to reinstate article 105(2) on presidential term limits which was also entrenched in the Constitution.
Article 105(2) which was scrapped from the Constitution in 2005 stipulated that, “A person shall not be elected under this Constitution to hold office as President for more than two terms as prescribed by this article.”
Deputy Attorney General Rutukana Mwesigwa reminded the House that the time for presidential tenure to take place is determined by a referendum.
“Members it should be known to us that we don’t have the mandate to determine the time the tenure should take effect because it can only be after the referendum,” Mwesigwa said.
Nandala Mafabi who brought the amendment said that, “As soon as you stand as president it should be known that you are going to stand as President.”
Other amendments that were also passed by the parliament include; article 103(3), (7) and 104(2), (3) (6) and 183(2)(b). The Bill now awaits the approval of President Yoweri Museveni.
Additional reporting by KampalaPost
