Parliament passed the Constitutional Amendment bill 2015 with support by most of the opposition members. 277 MPs were in favour of the bill, one abstained and six opposed out of 284 total members. The bill has allowed the independent members of parliament less than 12 months to cross to political parties of their choice.
The bill that was passed rejected the retirement age of 65 years to 70 years and 70 to 75 years for judges. In the new Constitutional Amendment bill they have changed the Electoral commission name to the Independent Electoral commission. However, parliament shelved the minority report views for future consideration.
The Attorney General Fred Ruhindi said that the views in the minority report on the Constitutional Amendment bill will be forwarded in the Constitutional Review commission to be considered in future. He said that the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee agreed with the president to have this constitution Review commission to deal with pending issues which could have not been dealt with due to time constraint.
The Constitution Amendment bill 2015 was passed yesterday when the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee only gathered views from 16 districts out 100 districts and it did not bring to parliament views of the people on the restoration of the presidential term limit though it was widely demanded. In light of this some opposition MPs walked out of parliament protesting the manner of debate on the Constitution Amendment bill.
The opposition walked out as parliament raised quorum for the second reading of the constitutional amendments. The leader of opposition Wafula Ogutu who led some of the opposition MPs out of parliament said that they cannot be part of a debate that does not want to listen to the minority views. The shadow Minister for Internal Affairs Muwanga Kivumbi said that he cannot accept the NRM MPs to continue rejecting the proposals to the Constitution Amendment bill without debating them.
However the opposition members who remained in parliament, who included Nathan Nandala Mafabi and Samuel Odonga Otto, forced government to drop its proposal for open term for the electoral commission and retained the constitution number of seven members of the chairman, vice and five commissioners.
Parliament also rejected a proposal by the Rubanda East MP Henry Musasizi that the Electoral commission should have a non-renewable seven year term of office instead of open term to avoid a possibility of compromise. Members of Parliament also opposed to the proposal by the Budadiri west MP Nandala Mafabi that opposition have a representative on the Electoral Commission on ground that if the commission have political party members it will became political.
In other news, Member of Parliament for Ishaka municipality in Bushenyi district Odo Tayebwa threatens to quit parliament if the presidential term limit is not restored in the constitution. He told journalists at parliament that most of the groups and individuals who appeared before the legal committee pleaded for presidential term limits but his disappointment was that the committee abandoned their demand.
He said that issues of electoral commission being independent must be considered, adding that the electoral commission should have 11 members vetted by the Judicial service commission so as it is credible in public to have free and fair elections. He appealed to Ugandans not to vote NRM MPs who support presidential term limits because are making some people to over stay in power.