Term limits touted as trade-off for age limit removal

Nov 13, 2017

The committee chairman, Jacob Oboth-Oboth, said that rather than leaving the Constitution ‘naked’ without any safety valves, the trade-off would be a good deal

The leader of Opposition in Parliament Winne Kiiza and Roland Mugume, the MP for Rukungiri Municipality appearing before the Committee on legal and parliamentary affairs recently. Some MPs want to trade age limit with term limits. Photo by Miriam Namutebi

The legal and parliamentary affairs committee is fronting proposals, among which is a trade-off of reinstating term limits and then deleting the age limit provision.

The committee has been gathering views from the public on the Bill seeking to remove the presidential age limit from the constitution.

The battle started in Parliament on the day the mover of the Bill, Igara west MP Raphael Magyezi, tabled it. Several opposition MPs were arrested and allegedly tortured by security personnel when they refused to vacate the chambers.

The committee has met experts, organisations, individuals and political parties, although some major opposition parties and law experts declined to attend on grounds that the decision is already fixed and the government will have its way.

Those represented by National Resistance Movement (NRM) seem to have agreed that the article be amended, while those represented by the Opposition want it to remain as it is.

The committee chairman, Jacob Oboth-Oboth, said the general view of members he has interacted with, both on the committee and in Parliament, is that rather than leaving the Constitution ‘naked' without any safety valves, the trade-off would be a good deal.

Oboth said although the matter has not been openly considered by the committee, there is need to debate with another view, to give people assurance, especially those who think that the age limit clause is meant to benefit President Yoweri Museveni, that there is some control they can rely on.

Another member of the committee, who declined to be named, but supports the restoration of term limits, said: "The President is a good driver, driving a big bus with so many important people on board. We need to protect him and the passengers.

When we put safety valves, it does not mean he is a bad leader. We are only preventing the accident," she said.

Agago MP Otto Makamot, who also supports the trade-off proposal, argues that the country is faced with an impasse and the committee must find a middle ground.

He, too, says it is the general view he gets from members he has interacted with and he believes it would provide a better position that cuts across the political spectrum.

"As a committee, we have a challenge, because we have to recommend something to the House in our report. Those I have interacted with say they would not have a problem with removing age limit if the term limit was there," he argues.

But will the new move take the day, given that even the witnesses either decline to respond to the proposal or just avoid it? Makmot argues that this is not the time to draw conclusions.

"When the time comes, all the options will be put on the table and discussed. We shall have to generate consensus, although we cannot avoid the possibility of a minority report," he said.

"When the proposal of the return of term limits was put to the Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda recently, he said: "Power belongs to the people. Let the people decide."

Former Constitutional Assembly delegate and minister for general duties in the Office of the Prime Minister, Tarsis Kabwegyere, argued that if Parliament is to propose the return of term limits, it should cut across the board.

"If you return them, who are they going to benefit? That is the problem of personalising the whole thing to President Museveni. Anyway, I am not concerned with term limits. I would not say that term limits is the solution," he argued.

The National Resistance Movement party deputy secretary general, Richard Todwong, declined to comment on the matter, saying he was not prepared for it.

However, some MPs are opposed to the idea. MP Wilfred Niwagaba, who is also the Opposition attorney general, insisted that trading off term limits with age limit would be diversionary.

"This proposal is aimed at hoodwinking the public. The beneficiary of age limit has insisted that term limits and age limit are backward. I would not trade the two. We insist that age limit should be maintained.

If they reinstate term limit and keep the age limit, well and good," Niwagaba argued.

MP Theodore Ssekikubo objected to the trade-off proposal, saying it is not a good idea.

"When they removed term limits, I complained and they said do not worry, age will catch up with him. Now that age has caught up with him, they are saying we remove the age. How sure are we that even when the term limit reaches, he will not change it? They should not change age limit," he argued.

Makerere University academician Prof. Mumbutsya Ndebesa when asked about the trade-off, told the legislators that both term and age limits were needed because they cure different problems.

Citing the example of President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, who became senile in office and caused a constitutional crisis, Mwambutsya said term limits control the problem of patronage, while age limit controls the problem of one becoming senile in office, hence causing a political crisis that can lead to state failure.

Secondly, he argued that in the Constitution, there are provisions that form the basic structure and when they are removed, it affects the whole Constitution, creating a crisis.

"Article 102 has three provisions. When you remove (b), what happens to the remaining two; (a) and (c)? Aren't they also discriminatory?" he asked.

"But I wonder whether the committee is not using us to legitimise what you have already decided upon, that Ndebesa also participated in," he said, sending members into prolonged laughter.

JEEMA party president, Asuman Basalirwa, insisted that the trade-off debate is diversionary because it undermines the directive of the Supreme Court to the government on the constitutional amendments. "I do not buy that idea. I find that diversionary.

Rather than trade off, the Government should heed to what the Supreme Court directed and have comprehensive reforms," he said.

The proposal for the trade-off could have technical and legal hurdles as this Bill cannot be used to amend other provisions of the Constitution.

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