74 per cent of Ugandans — mostly youth aged 25-34 years — do not want President Yoweri Museveni to run again. PHOTO | FILE
The Ugandan government is pushing to amend the Constitution and
lift the presidential age limit which will allow President Yoweri
Museveni to run for a sixth term.
However, according to
a December 2016 poll commissioned by the Uganda NGO Forum and conducted
by Research World International, 74 per cent of Ugandans — mostly youth
aged 25-34 years — do not want the president to run again.
At 76, President Yoweri Museveni will be ineligible to run in 2021, barring an amendment of Article 102(b).
With this poll still fresh in their minds, ruling party stalwarts and the opposition alike will be fighting from opposite ends.
As
was the case in 2005 when the 7th Parliament passed a controversial
amendment of Article 105 of the Constitution to lift presidential term
limits when Museveni was seeking his second term, he would again be the
main beneficiary of the proposed amendment of Article 102(b), if it
passes.
According to the Uganda Gazette of June 8,
2017, the government has gazetted a Constitution Amendment Bill 2017
that among other things seeks to remove the presidential age limit. The
fight to amend or preserve this provision of the supreme law is going to
dominate political space in Uganda between now and the next election.
The
Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Kahinda Otafiire says
after being gazetted, the Bill will be tabled in Parliament, which the
ruling party dominates and therefore expects to deliver. But the law
makers are still reading the public mood before they decide which way to
vote when the article is put to the a parliamentary vote.
“I
know where I stand on this, but once the Bill comes to Parliament, I
will first seek the views of my voters,” says independent legislator
Beatrice Anywar.
The mood is changing, and critics and
supporters alike, especially the youth, are pointing at President
Museveni’s duration at the helm of Uganda’s politics as a risk that
could cost the ruling party. The president, who has ruled since 1986,
will have clocked 35 years in power when his current term ends.
A
recent by-election in Kyaddondo East Constituency saw a youthful
independent candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine, sweep
the polls with 25,659 votes, against 4,556 garnered by the ruling
party’s candidate Sitenda Sebalu, whom Museveni had campaigned for.
A
number of young pro-NRM voters in Kyaddondo said their vote for one of
their own was a protest against the older generation and for urban
issues like unemployment that Museveni and his government have failed to
address.
The national mood is further dampened by a
poorly performing economy that grew at 3.9 per cent in the past
financial year, an exchange rate that is close to Ush3,600 to the dollar
while essential commodities remain out of reach for a majority of the
population.
All these are factors that could count
against Museveni and the ruling party if voters demand of their
Parliament to end his presidency by keeping the age limit.
But Justice Minister Otafiire is unfazed. He says the government will stand by the outcome of the vote.
But Justice Minister Otafiire is unfazed. He says the government will stand by the outcome of the vote.
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