Parliament considers Bill seeking to restore term limits

PARLIAMENT  

KAMPALA - Parliament has started considering the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2019, which seeks to restore the two presidential term limits.

The Private Member's Bill was on Wednesday read for the second time by Wilfred Niwagaba, who is also the shadow opposition attorney general.

Justifying the Bill, Niwagaba explained that it seeks to, among other things, reduce on the high cost of public administration by reducing the number of ministers from the current 81 to only 21.

The Bill, Niwagaba explained, also proposes the need to scrap the offices of Vice-President and the Prime Minister, so that the two roles are executed by the Deputy President, who would be a running-mate in the presidential elections.

The Ndorwa East MP noted that his Bill would also create an opportunity for political parties and voters to challenge a presidential election.

Other proposed reforms include provisions to involve the Judicial Service Commission in appointment of the Electoral Commission, empowering the Public Service Commission to determine salaries and allowances of public officers and changing the name of the Uganda Police Force to Uganda Police Service.

To make ministers more effective, Niwagaba proposes in the Bill, that ministers be appointed from elected Members of Parliament.

The legal and parliamentary affairs chairperson, Jacob Oboth Oboth, was not present in the House.

However, a copy of the committee report, seen by New Vision, indicates that the MPs on the committee supported the proposal for the restoration of presidential term limits.

The committee rejected the proposal for MPs not to be elected ministers, arguing that it would instead create more costs, since ministers are regarded as ex-officio Members of Parliament, who enjoy the privileges enjoyed by elected MPs.

The committee also rejected the proposal to scrap army MPs and presidential candidates to have running mates.

The committee has, however, added a proposal for extending the term of office for MPs, the President and other elective offices to seven years.

A similar amendment was made in 2017, in which the MPs had extended their term of office to seven years, but the Constitutional Court quashed it, saying its passing never followed the right procedures.

The justices argued that since this was a matter of public concern, that needed public participation and endorsement, the MPs ought to have extended their tenure through a referendum.

Even in the minority report signed by three opposition MPs — Busiro East MP Medard Lubega Sseggona, Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda and Bugiri County MP Asuman Basalirwa — they did not raise any objection to the proposal to extend the term of office for political leaders.