Government to table another bill to lift age limit

The Minister for Local Government Raphael Magyezi will present to Parliament another Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020 that will see the lifting of the age cap for those intending to contest for the political positions in lower local government councils.

This comes months after the Legal and Parliamentary affairs committee said it had erred in processing the controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017 that saw the lifting of the age cap for only the office of the president and that of the district chairperson.

The move a;so came a day after the chairperson of the Electoral Commission Justice Simon Byabakama told legislators that the commission will not nominate aspirants below 30 years and those above 75years for the positions of mayor municipalities, division chairpersons, town council and sub-county chairpersons.

In an interview with the chairperson of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee Jacob Oboth Oboth, the committee should have removed the age-cap for lower councils at the time it lifted the presidential age-limit in 2017.

Oboth Oboth admitted that this was an over sight on the part of Parliament.

He said Magyezi together with his counterpart in the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs have been tasked to present another constitutional amendment bill that will see the lifting of the age limit for those intending to contest for lower local government council positions.

On the issue of EC declining to nominate persons with discrepancies in names, Oboth Oboth said government has been tasked to present the amendments to Parliament to have women who have adopted their husband’s names nominated without gazetting the adopted names.