FDC has conceded before age limit ruling is done

POLITICS

By David Serumaga

This week, the Constitutional Court started hearing the joint petition challenging the amendment of the constitution to remove the presidential age limit that was done at the end of last year.

The petitioners include the Uganda Law Society and the Kampala Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago, who is representing the MPs challenging the amendment of Article 102(b) in the Constitution of Uganda.

Parties involved in the age limit petition have laid down 13 issues that they want addressed as the case hearing continues from Mbale district.

Even though the case has just begun, pressure is high on the opposition side, mainly the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) members who sound anxiously that they have already lost the petition. This is because some have come up to say that the constitutional court that sits in Mbale is biased and it might not favour them.

It is unclear whether they do not have enough evidence to table before the court or it is just their lawyers with low self-esteem. To make matters worse, the FDC party president, Eng. Patrick Amuriat Oboi said his party will make its own ruling if they feel that they have been cheated in the constitutional court over their age limit petition in Mbale.

First of all, this is a political matter which politicians themselves failed to handle and the aggrieved ones decided to run to court to seek justice. This means that a lot was expected in the court and it was to satisfy the petitioners whether the ruling is against them or not but all what they looked for is fair justice.

For Amuriat to come up and say that he will declare his ruling proves that the petitioners have accepted that they have lost the game on matters of lack of evidence or failure to present themselves professionally yet they have experienced lawyers.

Will his party ruling on the age limit amendment be fair if he is the petitioner and the judge at the same time? Who will have headed the court that Amuriat will be representing?

I think opposition members should respect the court because they ran there to seek justice and it does not make sense if you predict the ruling before it is heard. It is comical that Amuriat will be reading his court ruling if he feels that they have been cheated. Let me think that he is not trying to scare the judges to feel sorry for him.

The writer is the president of Buganda Youth Wing