The Attorney General, William Byaruhanga on Wednesday found a hard time defending a decision by parliament to amend article 102(b) that saw the lower and upper age limit removed from the constitution.
The amendment meant that President Museveni who will be above 75 years will be eligible for re-election in 2021 after the barriers stopping him were removed by parliament.
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Defending the decision by the Constitutional Court sitting in Mbale to uphold the scrapping of the presidential age limit clauses from the Constitution, Byaruhanga told the Supreme Court that what parliament did was right because it derived power from the Constitution.
“Article 102(b)(which talks of age limit) is not among the articles entrenched by the framers of the constitution and the amendment therefore didn’t undermine the spinal cord of the constitution,” the Attorney General told court on Wednesday.
He explained that amending the age limit was good because it gave the widened the pool of choice for the people to choose a leader adding that it also enabled people more freedom to exercise their sovereignty on which person to lead them.
Asked to explain whether the constitutional amendment was not meant to favour President Museveni who would be above the mandatory age by the time the next election comes, Byaruhanga said that despite Museveni being more than 75 years by 2021, the amendment gave more powers to people to exercise the rights to either vote him out or in.
The judges also put the Attorney General to task to explain whether the amendment passed the litmus test as put in article 79 of the Constitution that emphasizes that any law passed should be intended to preserve good governance, order and peace of the country, he responded to the affirmative.
He asked court to throw out the age limit appeal.
Hearing of the case continues before a panel of 7 judges including the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe,Paul Mugamba,Stella Amoko Arach, Ruby Apio Aweri, Jotham Tumwesigye, Eldad Mwanguhya and Lillian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza .
Last year, the Constitutional Court sitting in Mbale in a 4:1 decision, upheld the scrapping of the presidential age limit clauses from the Constitution by Parliament but struck down the extension of the term of the current parliament and Local Councils by two years as had been passed by parliament.
A group of three parties including the Uganda Law Society, lawyer Male Mabirizi and 6 opposition MPs led by Winnie Kiiza challenged the decision before the Supreme Court.
