Publication date: Tuesday, 20th May, 2003
By Okello Jabweli
and James Odong
Members of Parliament opposed to the proposed no-term-limit for a president are set for nationwide mobilisation campaign against changing article 105 of the Constitution. The article limits a president to a maximum of two-five year terms.
The campaign could start as early as this weekend in Pallisa county where members of the Young Parliamentarians are expected to participate in a fundraising event organised by area MP Louis Opange. Invitations for the function have been pinned all over Parliament.
The proposal to take the fight to the countryside where most voters live, was adopted at a meeting yesterday.
Bugabula south MP Proscovia Salaamu Musumba chaired the meeting at Parliament.
A source told the New Vision at Parliament shortly after the meeting that their constituency campaigns would ensure that the rural population was not manipulated into accepting a position without understanding its full implications.
The meeting came on the heels of the President’s meeting with the Movement Caucus on Sunday.
Musumba said MPs who support the Movement were set for mobilisation against the third term.
“We are embarking on mobilisation throughout the country to enable Ugandans know the dangers of changing the constitution anyhow. We want our people to know that it is dangerous to change the supreme law of the land in a manner which seems to be manipulative,” Musumba said.
She said MPs should carry out proper analysis of the cost and benefits of amending the constitution to allow for unlimited presidential terms.
Some MPs are concerned that President Yoweri Museveni could be planning to stay on beyond 2006 when his second constitutional term expires.
Two members of the group, Maj. John Kazoora and Capt. Guma Gumisiriza over the weekend vowed to remain in the movement as they resist the third term proposal.
The MPs ended their second session last week.
At the same time, the anti-third term group who have been caucusing at different hotels in Kampala over the last two months, are gearing up for a clash with the main stream movement group over supremacy in the proposed organisation.
The members are concerned that President Museveni is tightly controlling the process leading to the registration with a view of eventually expelling non-conformist members.
A source close to the anti-third term MPs said the President could be planning to use a ‘purified’ movement organisation to promote a third term. Museveni has not yet asked for a third term.
Tingey MP Dr. Steven Chebrot yesterday told journalists at Parliament that no single individual or group should be allowed to dictate the vision of the new organisation.
Ends
This article can be found on-line at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/135210
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