The rulimg party has informed the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs that article 102(b) was smuggled into the constitution.
This was revealed by the party deputy Secretary General Richard Todwong who appeared before The Jacob Oboth Oboth committee on Thursday to defend the party’s position on age limit.
The disputed article stipulates that, “The person is not
qualified for election as President unless that
person is not more than 75 years of age”.
Todwong told the committee that in their findings, the
Article pertaining to the upper age limit for one to be President of Uganda was never agreed upon by the members of the Constituent Assembly (CA).
He added that, “There was no upper age limit in the Odoki Commission Report. The Constituent Assembly (C.A) debated this matter with amendments proposed by Hon. Chepsikor, Hon. Atwoki and Hon. Mayombo”.
He further stated during the deliberations on the constitution, Hon. Chepsikor proposed the lower age limit at 25 year while Hon. Atwoki proposed it to be at 35 years and Hon. Mayombo supported Atwoki’s proposal, but added that
there should also be an upper limit of 75 years.
Todwong told the Committee that in the same CA debate, another member (Hon. Kabayo) had introduced a motion to delete Paragraph 102 (b) as proposed by Mayombo which motion was seconded by delegates.
According to Todwong, the CA then agreed that no age limit should be taken and that it should instead be left to the people.
Oboth asked Todwong to provide all the necessary evidence before the committee as well as providing a copy of the Hansard of the CA backing up his claims.
Bugweri MP Abdu Katuntu who sits on the same Parliametary Commitee warned that signing false documents or forgery is a crime and, therefore, the investigations should as well focus on the one who signed the Constitution.
