Age limit article was smuggled in - Todwong

AGE LIMIT | HOUSE COMMITTEE

The ruling National Resistance Movement party attempted to justify the need to amend Article 102 (b) of the Constitution to lift the presidential age limit.

During an interface with the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, the secretary general of the party, Richard Todwong, said the current law in its form descriminates people above the age of 75, since it bars them from their right to contest for the presidency and LC5 leadership.

Todwong said age is just a number, and does not determine competence in leadership. He advised that the limitation should be scrapped.

"The country needs the experience of elders and, above all, people's right to elect a leader of their choice should not be restricted," he said.

When Todwong alleged that the Article was smuggled into the 1995 Constitution,  members tasked him to provide evidence to justify his claims.

Mwenge South MP Ashton Kajara, who was a member of the Constitutional Assembly at the time, refuted Todwong's claims, saying all articles were approved by Parliament.