85% Ugandans Against 102(b) Amendments   

By.Damba Rogers

A new survey released by Uganda Governance monitoring platform indicates that 85% of Ugandans are opposed to amendment of article 102(b) to uplift the lower and upper cap of presidential age limit from the Constitution.

The survey conducted in 80 constituents of the country in the last three months show that only 15% of Ugandans want the Constitution amended to through away the contagious article.

This  was conducted amongst 50429 citizens from the four regions of Central, Eastern, Northern and Western where the participants were subjected to a question on whether they support the proposed amendment of Aticle 102(b) to uplift the presidential age limit.

According to the survey, in central region,(66% are opposed while 34%are in support of the amendment.

In Eastern region, 95%are against amendment whereas only 5%0are in support, from Northern region, 86%are against while 19% support the amendment and in Western part of the country, 76%  are against amendment while 24% support the amendment of the article.

According to Godba Tumushabe , an associate director Great Lakes Institute for strategic studies, they specifically went to Igara West constituency of the mover of the bill and this way, 87% of respondents were opposed to amending the article.

Tumushabe now advises that before parliament debates and vote about this constitutional amendment, they should highly consider voices of Ugandans compared to the assumptions made by some MPs about their constituents.

He further notes that parliament needs to come up with minimum standard on conducting consultation about such important matters like amending of the constitution.

The Executive Director initiative for Human Rights Foundation Livingstone Sewanyawana says the survey reflects the needs of the public where many of the respondents noted the need for more social service as a priority at this time than minding about lifting a the age of president.

The report further recommends that government needs to take responsibility and subject the attempts to amend the constitution to serious citizen secrutiny before any decisions are made couple with the need for parliament to come up with minimum standards on conducting consultations about such important matters like amendments and also prevail on security organs and individuals to desist from disenfranchising citizens and their organizations who hold divergent views from those held by some members in government.

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