NRM’s Odupa: After mourning Oulanyah, next is proposal to have president voted by Parliament

The former Kioga County MP contestant, Felix Odupa has said that after mourning the Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah, his next move will be spearheading the proposal to have the country’s president elected by parliament.

Appearing on NBS Morning Breeze show, Odupa said that he will do this by embarking on collecting signatures to see that Uganda changes from the current presidential system to parliamentary democracy electoral system.

He further revealed that the Electoral Commission has already given a nod to the proposal.

“After mourning our brother Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah, we shall embark on collecting signatures to see that the president is voted through the parliament. The Electoral Commission has already given us the go-ahead,” Odupa said.

According to Odupa, the country needs a solution to a lot of problems with the current constitution and according to him, the proposal to change the electoral system is one of the solutions.

Early in January, a group of  NRM  party candidates who lost in the previous parliamentary elections, under their group Transformer Cadres Association Uganda led by Odupa backed the electoral system amendment proposal.

“We propose the creation of a Senate or Upper House in parliament. Members of the senate of Upper House will be nominated by political organization parties with representation in parliament. Representation in Senate will be according to strength of parties in the lower house. This is intended to rise the quality of debate in as far as legislation is concerned.” Odupa told journalists in January.

If amended, this paves way for a hybrid parliamentary system where the head of government who also doubles as the head of state is elected by parliament and local government councils.

In January, asked on his stance on the proposal, president Museveni rejected the idea saying voting should be done by all Ugandans not only Members of Parliament.

“It narrows the legitimacy of such a President. It should be the whole population so I don’t support that proposal and I will not support it,” Museveni said in an interview with the NewVision.