Ugandan lawmakers fight inside parliament in September 2017 ahead of the
debate to change the Constitution to extend the president’s rule. FILE
PHOTO | NMG
Questions still linger around the contents of the five electoral
reform Bills first tabled in parliament by the government on July 25.
Then
after four days of intense criticism of the drafts the government
unveiled another set that it said were the genuine draft laws.
On
Thursday, Attorney General William Byaruhanga tabled the five Bills in
response to recommendations and a subsequent order by the Supreme Court.
The
proposed reforms at first caused an uproar among the public, civil
society and the political opposition due to the proposal to ban cameras
and phones at polling stations and bar independent candidates from
forming alliances with political parties. The opposition said the
reforms were targeting particular individuals.
Four
days later, Mr Byaruhanga and his deputy Mwesigwa Rukutana accused the
media and opposition of concocting certain provisions of the Bills and
branded the public criticism “very unreasonable.”
“A
proposal stopping people from using mobile phones at polling stations is
not there. I do not know where it came from. The media should tell the
truth,” Mr Byaruhanga said.
Others that he said were not in his initial reforms were the
provision of soldiers and police voting five days earlier and failure to
address the recommendations by the Supreme Court.
Critics,
however, say that the AG had enough time to rework the Bills after
tabling drafts in a bid to beat the Supreme Court deadline on July 25.
On
the day of their tabling, which comprised altering the Order Paper to
accommodate their presentation, neither MPs nor journalists had seen
them.
This left questions as to whether what was tabled were the actual Bills Mr Byaruhanga released and circulated four days later.
Reforms
The
five Bills that the government presented largely provide for the
participation of independent candidates in elections, restrictions on
candidates’ sources of funding to finance elections; require the
Electoral Commission to designate restricted areas and to provide for a
special procedure for voting in these areas.
Under the
reforms, a former party member can only stand for Member of Parliament
or president as an independent if he/she ceased being a member of the
political party 12 months before nomination day and was duly discharged
by the party.
The amendments also require candidates to
declare to the Electoral Commission, within 14 days after nomination
day, the source of funds that they intend to use for financing their
election bid.
The amendments also bar candidates from
obtaining any assistance from any foreign actors who have demonstrated
an intention to overthrow the government of Uganda, or endanger its
security.
Culprits under this clause will be charged under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act, 2002, and forfeit the money to the state.
The
reforms also remove the provision of having polling material delivered
within 48 hours before polling day and changes it to any time before
polling day.
It should be noted that during the last
general election, election materials reached some areas, mostly
opposition strongholds, several hours after the official start of
voting.
Wilfried Niwagaba, the shadow AG on Thursday
also requested parliament to grant him leave to introduce a private
member’s Bill that contains the opposition’s proposed electoral reforms.
Mr Niwagaba is an independent MP representing Ndorwa County East constituency.
In
its proposed reforms, the opposition seeks to reinstate presidential
term limits which were scrapped from the constitution in 2005; to
replace the office of vice president with the office of deputy
president; to repeal the office of prime minister and to restrict the
number of Cabinet ministers and state ministers.
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