Opposition launches new protest
Opposition leader in Uganda Dr. Kizza Besigye launched a new campaign called “Tubalemese,” which means “let’s fail them”. The campaign aims at putting pressure on the members of parliament who voted for the constitutional amendment against their people’s wishes. He wants to isolate legislators that voted for the amendment and called for the boycott their businesses. The campaign also involves creating a people’s government with regional assemblies in the districts.
Ruling party woes defiant MPs
The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party held a meeting to discuss issues concerning the party, one of which the action to be taken against the 27 of its members of parliament who voted “No” against he constitutional amendment breaking with the party line. During the meeting, the party asked these MPs write letters explaining why they went against the party position.
Uganda Law Society to challenge amendment
The Uganda Law Society (ULS) will challenge the Constitutional Amendment Act of 2017 on the basis that the amendment did not consider the civil liberties of the citizens of Uganda. The lawyers argue that the process of adoption of the amendment was marked by violence, abuse of human rights, assault on individuals and intimidation. The petition looks at the amendment of Article 8, which gives members of Parliament two more years in their term increasing it from five to seven years. ULS argues that the amendment of Article 8 will imply that the electoral commission will have to hold separate elections for the president and members of parliament because the former has a five-year term while the latter have seven-year terms which according to the ULS contravenes articles 1 and 8A of the constitution.
Four MPs leave coalition over constitutional ammendment
Four members of parliament have left the Lango Parliamentary Group(LPG) which is a coalition of members of parliament in the Lango Sub region. The legislators who quit are Doren Amule of Amolatar, Christine Acen of Alebtong, Bonny Okello of Kole North County and Anthony Okello of Kioga county. The people in LPG’s constituencies had agreed to refuse the amendment of the constitution, however all the four voted in favor of the amendment. They left the coalition citing its inability of respect their divergent views. Ms. Amule also accused the coalition of having lost its focus and vision. However, the LPG chairperson Mr. Felix Okot said the four MPs were being haunted by the guilt of betraying their constituents by supporting the constitutional amendment.
