Abed Bwanika
The Electoral Commission (EC) has allowed Dr Abed Bwanika the Former Presidential Candidate and head of the People’s Development Party (PDP) to collect signatures for referendum on the Constitutional amendment of Article 102(b).
Dr Bwanika, with the right granted to him by article 255 of the constitution has come up with Referenda 2017 campaign for Ugandans to determine if or not the constitution should be amended to remove the presidential age limit.
In the same campaign, Dr Bwanika wants to revisit and restore Presidential term limits whose clause was scrapped off from the Constitution in 2005 through Parliamentary vote.
According to section 11 of the Referendum and other provisions Act of 2005, “the Electoral Commission shall cause a referendum to be held nationally if a petition is made in writing and is supported by at least one tenth of the total registered voters from at least one third of the districts of Uganda.”
This implies that Dr Bwanika has to collect signatures from at most 39 districts over 116 districts in Uganda.
For the same cause, MP Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, in September, wrote to the commission requesting for a copy of the national voters register to enable him collect signatures calling for a referendum on the controversial age limit debate.
This comes at a time when MPs are consulting their constituents about the amendment of Article 107 (b).
