By Milton Olupot
and Mary Karugaba

THE Electoral Commission, chairperson, Eng. Badru Kiggundu, has warned of a constitutional crisis if Parliament does not act fast and put in place a law to enable the election of youth councillors.

Appearing before the labour and social development parliamentary committee yesterday, Kiggundu said: “Without MPs for the youth, the House will not be fully constituted, which will be a crisis. we need to act fast if we are to avoid this.”

He said the commission needed to prepare structures for the election of youth parliamentary representatives, and if the law is not ready by April, the youth MPs will not be elected during the 2011 general elections.

The last National Youth Council elections were held in 2001. For the last nine years, youth councillors could not be elected because the law used for the elections under the NRM government could not be used in the multi-party system.

This means that the youth council officials who stood for the 2001 elections are still in office although their term has expired.

The commission was appearing before the committee to make an input to the amendment of the law. Kiggundu said about sh30b would be required to carry out the youth and women council elections.

The committee chairman, Pherry Sabano Kabanda, said the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development had come up with amendments to the existing Youth Council elections Act to enable the law apply to the current multi-party setting.

Kabanda explained that Parliament was doing everything within its power to ensure that the relevant laws are put in place to avoid the crisis.

She added that once the law was ready, the funds to carry out the elections would be provided.