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8*ANDA /egislators in the 8gandan Parliament have voted on the controversial bill to lift the presidential age limit and the supporters of the bill took the day. The vote which was open with legisla tors saying µAye <es’ or µNay No’ needed at least votes in favor of the amendment to proceed to the ne[t stage of legislation. ,n the end, legislators voted in favor of the amendment, voted No while members abstained from the vote. Two members abstained, voted against and voted in favor of the amendment. Therefore the motion has been carried on pronounced the speaker of Parliament, Rebecca .adaga. The bill will now be closely scrutinised by a Parliamen tary committee before it can be brought back to the floor of parliament for a second reading.
,n the build up to this vote, parliament was the scene of chaos as two legislators were arrested as they tried to ac cess parliament to serve the speaker and deputy attorney general with court summons that would have prematurely ended today’s debate. The legislators who are also law yers have sued the two offi cials over the suspension of si[ opposition legislators that happened on 0onday during the presentation of the /egal Affairs Committee reports. The suspended legislators were accused of µdisorderly conduct’ and µrefusing to heed the speaker’s instruc tions’. There were also row dy scenes in Parliament this week as legislators alleged that unauthorised security agencies had accessed par liament and defiled its prem ises, specifically the places of worship. The legislators were debating two reports from the legal affairs committee which had been tasked to scrutinise a report on the presidential age limit bill. :hile maMority of the committee members ( out of ) approved the lifting of the age limit, leg islators including a member of the ruling National Re sistance 0ovement (NR0) party opposed it saying the amendments were being done for the benefit of one person. ,n debating the reports, the speaker questioned the inclu sion of recommendations to restore presidential term lim its and e[tension of the par liamentary and presidential terms to years.
0any 8gandans used social media to e[press their disap pointment in the way their legislators voted.
,f this bill is passed into law, President 0useveni who is currently years old will be able to contest in the general elections.
8nder the current constitu tion of 8ganda, 0useveni who will be in can’t contest for the presidency since Article (b) stipu lates that a presidential can didate shall be a 8gandan aged between and .
(Africanews)