The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee has directed Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana to present reforms that were recommended by the Supreme Court since 2001.
The Committee Chairperson Markson Jacob Oboth-Oboth made the directive on Tuesday during an interface with Mwesigwa who appeared alongside Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Gen. Kahinda Otafire to justify five electoral reform Bills recently tabled before parliament.
The Bills include the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill No.17, 2019, the Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill No.18, 2019, Electoral Commission (Amendment) Bill No. 19, 2019, the Political Parties and Organization (Amendment) Bill No. 20, 2019 and the Local Governments (Amendment) Bill No.21, 2019.
They seek to among other things reform electoral laws relating to the qualification of candidate’s, campaign financing and the procedure in which presidential, parliamentary, local governments elections will be held and the role of political parties and the Electoral Commission.
The Bills also seeks to incorporate the most recent ten recommendations made by the Supreme Court in the 2016 presidential election petition and the Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018, which scrapped the age limit for presidential and local government candidates, extended the time for filing election petitions, hearing of petitions and the period for holding presidential by-elections when polls are nullified.
After formally presenting the Bills and Certificates of finance implication to the committee, Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa raised a procedural issue saying that the Supreme Court has in the past made several recommendations intended to achieve free and fair elections.
Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu said that most of the complaints in the Presidential Election petitions over the years was non-observance of electoral laws and principles and that court upheld that despite the non-observance, the substantiality test was never passed. He said that Court has severally made recommendations on numerous and repetitive flaws.
Katuntu said that he expected the Attorney General to have a catalogue of all recommendations from the Supreme Court to better inform the process of amending the electoral laws. He said that the selected picking of some recommendations by court does not help.
Katuntu demanded the catalogue to be submitted in writing indicating status on each recommendation.
Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana said that in formulation of the Bills before the Committee, they were very much aware of all recommendations that have been issued by court over time.
He said that the last set of court recommendations embody all those that have been previously issued by court and that not even one recommendation has been left out.
But Ndorwa East MP Wilfred Niwagaba and Katuntu insisted that before the committee engages in a discussion, the Deputy Attorney General presents a written catalogue. Niwagaba says that government has continued to ignore a court directive on conduct of the army and other security agencies during elections.
Oboth directed that the Deputy Attorney General to urgently avail his committee with a catalogue of previous court recommendations to inform the reforms with their status indicated. Rukutana agreed to present the catalogue of recommendations and actions taken over time.
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