KAMPALA: Uganda has begun scrapping the last constitutional restriction preventing President Yoweri Museveni from remaining in office for life. Unhappy with the president has been fuelled by a stuttering economy and a crackdown on dissent and protests. The initiative for the amendment banning anyone over 75 from running for president prompted several unprecedented fighting in parliament on two consecutive days. MPs approved a petition to allow a private members bill amending the relevant article of the constitution.
Museveni, 73, will be 77 in 2021, year of the next presidential election. The new amendment is expected to pass through the ruling National Resistance Movement, and independents who support the concurrent President make up well over more than two-thirds of MPs required to change the constitution. It appears that public opinion scraps the age limit. A survey by Afrobaromter, a pan-African non-partisan organisation, found that three-quarters of respondents opposed the move. Museveni's supporters said the move was nothing to do with the president, but merely seeking to end “unfair discrimination”, according to Privatisation and Investment Minister Evelyn Anite. She said, “There's no upper limit for a person to vote. So the argument is if I have the right to vote I should have the right to be voted for.”
Several critics are of the view that the initiative is all about perpetuating Museveni's increasingly authoritarian rule. “It's a matter that's being done in bad faith to promote the interests of one man. In 2005, we amended the constitution to get rid of term limits so President Museveni could say in office. This amendment is coming just to promote his interests, too. The country is turning into a monarchy,” said Felix Okot-Ogong, one of the several NRM legislators opposing the move.
Meanwhile, Country director of ActionAid Uganda, Arthur Larok said, “If term limits were the handbrake on President Museveni's authoritarianism, the age limit is the footbrake. If we destroy it the country will slide into anarchy because the last effective check on his power will have gone.” Museveni has maintained a silence on the subject, distancing himself from the debate. His spokesperson Don Wanyama said, “The president has his agenda and that's what he's pursuing. Others can focus on what they deem to be crucial but he doesn't necessarily have to join them.”
