Should The President Get Another Term?

Oct 29, 2002

ANY critical observer of Uganda’s politics should have noticed lately that pressure is steadily building up within the Movement in favour of changing the Constitution to enable President Yoweri Museveni to stand for a third term in 2006.

With John Kakande
ANY critical observer of Uganda’s politics should have noticed lately that pressure is steadily building up within the Movement in favour of changing the Constitution to enable President Yoweri Museveni to stand for a third term in 2006.
The President has more than once stated that he would retire when his current term of office expires in 2006. But some Movement leaders and individuals are pressing for the President to stay. On October 22, 2002, a group of Movement cadres in Fort Portal handed a memorandum to the Minister for the Presidency, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, calling for an amendment to the Constitution to scrap provisions limiting a president to only two terms.
Prof. Bukenya, in reply criticised the two-term limit provisions arguing that they contradict Article 1 of the Constitution that provides that “all power belong to the people.”
Former minister Mayanja Nkangi recently told the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) that a president should not be limited to only two terms. Similarly, Haji Abdu Kuluma Matovu, the chairperson of the Kasese district Movement cadres forum, this month said that the people of Kasese had recommended to the CRC that there should be a referendum in 2005 on whether the President should be given another term in office.
This development has not come as a surprise. As the year 2006 approaches, pressure is likely to mount pressure on President Museveni to postpone his retirement. The late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania faced similar pressures, but he withstood the pressures and voluntarily stepped down in the interest of the country. Subsequently, the Constitution of Tanzania was amended to limit the President to only two terms.
However, President Sam Nujoma changed Namibia’s Constitution to serve a third term. Former President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia unsuccessfully tried to amend the constitution to serve a third term. There is a protracted struggle going on in Malawi to amend the constitution in order for President Bakili Muluzi to get a third term. Muluzi recently sacked a minister who wrote advising him not to behave like his predecessor, the late Kamuzu Banda.
It would be most unwise to change the Constitution to allow a president to serve as many terms as he or she wants. The Constituent Assembly (CA) had legitimate reasons to limit the president’s term. It was recommended by the Odoki Commission and was intended to ensure that a president does not overstay. Uganda’s history shows that leaders have had a tendency to overstay, even when they are no longer useful. This has partly been responsible for political violence and instability. So far, no Ugandan president has voluntarily stepped down. When Kenya’s Moi steps down, Uganda will be the only country in East Africa which has not had a president stepping down voluntarily.
President Museveni would do Uganda a service, if he rejects the proposal to amend the constitution to remove the presidential two-term limit. This is important for the evolution of constitutionalism. Ends

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