Roadmap ready by early June
May 18, 2004
CABINET will unveil its blueprint on the transition from the Movement to multiparty politics in early June, Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya said yesterday.
By Felix Osike
CABINET will unveil its blueprint on the transition from the Movement to multiparty politics in early June, Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya said yesterday.
Addressing a press conference at the Cabinet library on Parliamentary buildings, Bukenya said the delay in tabling the roadmap was due to the need to study the laws that require amendment.
“The roadmap to 2006 is on course. Forget about the superficial one. This one is comprehensive, looking at all the laws. Three weeks from now we shall have a White Paper spelling out the roadmap. We have been slow because we have been carefully looking at the Electoral Commission,†Bukenya said.
He promised a comprehensive roadmap giving a harmonised position on how the country should move forward.
Bukenya called journalists to brief them on the death of Attorney General Francis Ayume and the security situation in the north. He was flanked by state ministers Betty Akech for security and Grace Akello for northern Uganda reconstruction.
He said he would soon lead a Cabinet sub-committee, which has been meeting for the last one month, to northern Uganda to launch agro-based programmes aimed at helping people living in internally displaced people’s camps. An estimated 1.2 million Ugandans are living in camps.
“We have tried to put up a programme which we are initiating stepwise to help people start food and income-generating projects around camps,†he said.
He added that the latest attack on civilians would not deter the Government’s resolve to bring peace to the region. He described the Pagak killings as barbaric, adding that the time given to the LRA leaders to benefit from amnesty was over and international means were being sought to deal with the problem.
The special Cabinet session, which has been going on since last week, was expected to end yesterday. Bukenya heads the sub-committee on the change of political systems and implementation of the Constitution Review Commission report.
The two contentious issues being discussed are whether a national referendum and not Parliament should effect the return to multipartysism and the amendment of Article 105 (2) of the Constitution, which would give a president an indefinite term in office.
The 1995 Constitution allows only two-five year terms.
Bukenya said the Government was saddened by the demise of Ayume, who died in a road accident on Sunday night and the hacking to death of 22 civilians in Pagak, Gulu district, by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.
Ayume chaired a legal sub-committee considering several laws, which may not be consistent with the Constitution in a multiparty era.
Bukenya denied a story in The Monitor, which said Ayume had warned against holding a national referendum on term limits.
“It is very bad to discuss the dead. Those press reports made me furious. This man has never, ever disagreed with the status quo of the Government. I have been talking to him and I have consulted him even on the letter the President wrote to me, but he has not differed at all,†Bukenya said.
He said Ayume, “has been at the centre of shaping the roadmap to 2006,†by harmonising all the laws. Akech said Ayume was one of the pillars of the Government.
Bukenya said the President had directed Cabinet to scrutinise electoral laws to ensure that the 2006 general elections are fraud free.
Ends
CABINET will unveil its blueprint on the transition from the Movement to multiparty politics in early June, Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya said yesterday.
Addressing a press conference at the Cabinet library on Parliamentary buildings, Bukenya said the delay in tabling the roadmap was due to the need to study the laws that require amendment.
“The roadmap to 2006 is on course. Forget about the superficial one. This one is comprehensive, looking at all the laws. Three weeks from now we shall have a White Paper spelling out the roadmap. We have been slow because we have been carefully looking at the Electoral Commission,†Bukenya said.
He promised a comprehensive roadmap giving a harmonised position on how the country should move forward.
Bukenya called journalists to brief them on the death of Attorney General Francis Ayume and the security situation in the north. He was flanked by state ministers Betty Akech for security and Grace Akello for northern Uganda reconstruction.
He said he would soon lead a Cabinet sub-committee, which has been meeting for the last one month, to northern Uganda to launch agro-based programmes aimed at helping people living in internally displaced people’s camps. An estimated 1.2 million Ugandans are living in camps.
“We have tried to put up a programme which we are initiating stepwise to help people start food and income-generating projects around camps,†he said.
He added that the latest attack on civilians would not deter the Government’s resolve to bring peace to the region. He described the Pagak killings as barbaric, adding that the time given to the LRA leaders to benefit from amnesty was over and international means were being sought to deal with the problem.
The special Cabinet session, which has been going on since last week, was expected to end yesterday. Bukenya heads the sub-committee on the change of political systems and implementation of the Constitution Review Commission report.
The two contentious issues being discussed are whether a national referendum and not Parliament should effect the return to multipartysism and the amendment of Article 105 (2) of the Constitution, which would give a president an indefinite term in office.
The 1995 Constitution allows only two-five year terms.
Bukenya said the Government was saddened by the demise of Ayume, who died in a road accident on Sunday night and the hacking to death of 22 civilians in Pagak, Gulu district, by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.
Ayume chaired a legal sub-committee considering several laws, which may not be consistent with the Constitution in a multiparty era.
Bukenya denied a story in The Monitor, which said Ayume had warned against holding a national referendum on term limits.
“It is very bad to discuss the dead. Those press reports made me furious. This man has never, ever disagreed with the status quo of the Government. I have been talking to him and I have consulted him even on the letter the President wrote to me, but he has not differed at all,†Bukenya said.
He said Ayume, “has been at the centre of shaping the roadmap to 2006,†by harmonising all the laws. Akech said Ayume was one of the pillars of the Government.
Bukenya said the President had directed Cabinet to scrutinise electoral laws to ensure that the 2006 general elections are fraud free.
Ends