Mukwaya Tables Movt Extension Bill
Jul 14, 2003
PARLIAMENT yesterday began scrutinising a law that will extend the Movement organs until 2005.
By Henry Mukasa
PARLIAMENT yesterday began scrutinising a law that will extend the Movement organs until 2005.
The law, The Movement Amendment Bill 2001, once passed, will defer elections on all elective posts of Movement organs and save the Government a sh1.2b expense.
The Bill was first tabled in 2001 but was rejected by Parliament.
Justice and constitutional affairs minister Janat Mukwaya presented the proposed amendments to the Movement Act of 1997 to the parliamentary committee on legal affairs, chaired by Dora Byamukama (Mwenge).
“The Government should not waste money electing people who will not serve their full five years. I therefore propose an amendment that will extend the term of office of all those holding posts of Movement organs from village level to NEC (National Executive Conference),†Mukwaya told the committee.
Mukwaya was flanked by the director, Legislative Drafting in the Ministry of Justice, Harriet Lwabi, and that of legal affairs at the Movement Secretariat, Margaret Oguli Owumo.
Persons elected under the Movement Act are serving a five-year term which expires this year.
Mukwaya said the wave of political change sweeping the country might not necessitate the elections.
In 2006, the country is expected to go to the polls. The Movement Conference and the National Executive Committee recently voted to open up political space for multiparty politics. Opening up, however, is conditional to a referendum.
She said in 2005, Ugandans would decide on the system of government they want. She said it was therefore prudent and financially wise not to elect people to serve only two years. “If people decide no change, the officers will be elected. If they decide multi-party, we shall operationalise Article 71 of the Constitution,†Mukwaya said.
In other proposed amendments, all Movement committees will be expanded and referred to as ‘Movement conference.’
Local council chairpersons have been exempted from being Movement members by law. The post of Movement chairperson at village level will be elective.
“People are saying, ‘If I do not want to be chairperson of the village Movement committee, why do you make me so?’†Mukwaya said to justify the amendment. A new clause is also proposed to make it legal for district Movement chairpersons to be delegates to the national Movement conference.
Mukwaya said the old law only recognised (administrative) district chairpersons as delegates to the conference.
“In districts where there is a district chairman different from the Movement chairman, the (administrative) chairman would attend yet the elected Movement chairman missed,†Mukwaya said.
However, Wagonda Muguli (Buikwe North) wondered whether the district Movement chairpersons have, in the past, attended the Movement conference illegally.
Mukwaya said they attended as observers and did not vote.
However, Wagonda protested this saying the “observers†spoke loudest at the Movement conferences. “They were enthusiastic observers.â€
“You attended the meeting and should have raised that then. It is unfair for you to raise it when I am before the committee,†Mukwaya said.
Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri) asked Mukwaya whether the Movement organs were not being re-aligned for use by the newly-created National Resistance Movement Organisation.
In response, Mukwaya said it was a coincidence that some of the promoters of the NRM Organisation were members of President Yoweri Museveni’s campaign task force.
Ends
PARLIAMENT yesterday began scrutinising a law that will extend the Movement organs until 2005.
The law, The Movement Amendment Bill 2001, once passed, will defer elections on all elective posts of Movement organs and save the Government a sh1.2b expense.
The Bill was first tabled in 2001 but was rejected by Parliament.
Justice and constitutional affairs minister Janat Mukwaya presented the proposed amendments to the Movement Act of 1997 to the parliamentary committee on legal affairs, chaired by Dora Byamukama (Mwenge).
“The Government should not waste money electing people who will not serve their full five years. I therefore propose an amendment that will extend the term of office of all those holding posts of Movement organs from village level to NEC (National Executive Conference),†Mukwaya told the committee.
Mukwaya was flanked by the director, Legislative Drafting in the Ministry of Justice, Harriet Lwabi, and that of legal affairs at the Movement Secretariat, Margaret Oguli Owumo.
Persons elected under the Movement Act are serving a five-year term which expires this year.
Mukwaya said the wave of political change sweeping the country might not necessitate the elections.
In 2006, the country is expected to go to the polls. The Movement Conference and the National Executive Committee recently voted to open up political space for multiparty politics. Opening up, however, is conditional to a referendum.
She said in 2005, Ugandans would decide on the system of government they want. She said it was therefore prudent and financially wise not to elect people to serve only two years. “If people decide no change, the officers will be elected. If they decide multi-party, we shall operationalise Article 71 of the Constitution,†Mukwaya said.
In other proposed amendments, all Movement committees will be expanded and referred to as ‘Movement conference.’
Local council chairpersons have been exempted from being Movement members by law. The post of Movement chairperson at village level will be elective.
“People are saying, ‘If I do not want to be chairperson of the village Movement committee, why do you make me so?’†Mukwaya said to justify the amendment. A new clause is also proposed to make it legal for district Movement chairpersons to be delegates to the national Movement conference.
Mukwaya said the old law only recognised (administrative) district chairpersons as delegates to the conference.
“In districts where there is a district chairman different from the Movement chairman, the (administrative) chairman would attend yet the elected Movement chairman missed,†Mukwaya said.
However, Wagonda Muguli (Buikwe North) wondered whether the district Movement chairpersons have, in the past, attended the Movement conference illegally.
Mukwaya said they attended as observers and did not vote.
However, Wagonda protested this saying the “observers†spoke loudest at the Movement conferences. “They were enthusiastic observers.â€
“You attended the meeting and should have raised that then. It is unfair for you to raise it when I am before the committee,†Mukwaya said.
Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri) asked Mukwaya whether the Movement organs were not being re-aligned for use by the newly-created National Resistance Movement Organisation.
In response, Mukwaya said it was a coincidence that some of the promoters of the NRM Organisation were members of President Yoweri Museveni’s campaign task force.
Ends