Opposition MPs have announced plans to traverse the country and hold rallies to oppose the proposed bill to amend the constitution and lift the presidential age-limit.
The private member’s bill is now before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee. The committee is yet to start its work.
The opposition campaign starts tomorrow at Kireka in Kira Municipality before moving to Nakawa on October 13.
Addressing journalists at Parliament, Winnie Kiiza, the Leader of the Opposition, called upon the police not to foil their rallies but to instead offer them protection.
“This message goes to Gen Kale Kayihura. What we are going to do is to consult the people about the age-limit. This is our duty as MPs so no one should stop us,” Kiiza said.
She urged all people to rally behind their cause and to overcome fear and intimidation by state functionaries.
Kiiza said their core message at the rallies shall be to tell people the dangers of lifting the presidential age-limit cap.
“We shall also tell people to resist MPs who come and try lure them to support the bill,” she said.
President Museveni has not publicly commented about the bill, which if passed into law, will give him the lee-way to contest in 2021. However it is widely suspected that he backs it.
Museveni is 73 years old now and going by the current constitution he is ineligible to stand in 2021 because he will have reached the presidential age cap of 75 years by then.
