VIDEO: Presidential age limit amendment was done in accordance with law- Judge

Justice Cheborion Barishaki has ruled that no law was contravened by parliament by passing the bill that enacted the lifting of both the maximum and minimum age limits from the constitution.

Parliament in December passed the controversial age limit Bill to lift the cap on the presidential and district chairperson age limit from the constitution after a total of 317 MPs voted in favor of the motion whereas 97 were against it.

A group of five people including the Uganda Law Society (ULS), lawyer Male Kiwanuka Mabirizi, six Opposition MPs led by the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Winnie Kiiza, Prosper Businge, Dr.Abed Bwanika and Jonathan Abaine Buregyeya would later petition the Constitutional Court challenging the passing of the age limit bill into law saying it contravened the constitution.

Reading his judgment on Thursday, Barishaki said that he was convinced that all the required procedures were followed by parliament before passing the bill.

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“The petitioners didn’t avail evidence that removing higher and lower age restrictions amounted to usurping of the powers of the voters,” he ruled.

The judge explained that parliament has powers to amend any article in the Constitution adding that this had been provided for by the people’s representatives in the Constituent Assembly.

He noted that if parliament had no powers to amend any article in the constitution, the framers would have entrenched the same during the Constituent Assembly.

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The judge noted that in any case, removing the minimum and maximum age from the constitution would help widen the pool for standing for president and district chairperson.

He said that the process for amending the article that led to lifting of the age limit did not breach any provisions of the constitution because parliament followed due process.

"The argument by the petitioners that amendment of presidential age limits violated people's sovereignty is not tenable. There was a bill, there was debate. There was consultation,”Barishaki ruled.

The judges have however gone into a forty-five- minute lunch break before another colleague from the panel of five judges reads their judgment.

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The panel of judges of the Constitutional Court who heard the petition and are delivering the judgment include Owiny-Dollo, Cheborion Barishaki , Kenneth Kakuru,Elizabeth Musoke and Remmy Kasule .