A law amending Uganda’s constitution to allow ageing leader Yoweri Museveni to extend his rule was introduced in parliament on Tuesday, at a session where nearly all its opponents were either barred or stayed away in protest.
Museveni, 73, has ruled Uganda since 1986. He is as yet ineligible to seek re-election in the next polls in 2021 because the existing constitution places an age ceiling of 75 on anyone aspiring to the presidency.
The bill brought to parliament would remove the age hurdle.
Parliament spokesman Chris Obore said the bill was read and then referred to a parliamentary committee.
“The committee will scrutinise it, hold public hearings and make a report on it … then it will be returned to the House,” he said.
A broad spectrum of Ugandans including the political opposition, religious leaders, rights activists and some members of the ruling party have voiced opposition to removing the age cap.
Last week, fighting broke out in parliament for two consecutive days between legislators opposed to the plan and those supporting it.
On the second day of the fighting, House Speaker Rebecca Kadaga suspended 25 MPs who oppose the law for three sessions for unruly conduct.
Security personnel, who MPs say were soldiers in plain clothes, were brought in to eject them and some MPs were injured in the process.
Dozens of other MPs from both the opposition and ruling party opposed to removing the age cap walked out of the House in solidarity and have vowed not to return for the duration of their colleagues’ suspension.
When the bill is brought back to the House, Obore said, parliamentarians will debate the committee’s findings, make their own recommendations and take a final vote.
Museveni’s bid to remain in power in Uganda, a prospective crude oil producer and Africa’s largest coffee exporter, follows a trend in the region.
Uganda is Africa’s biggest coffee exporter and on the threshhold of becoming an oil producer, with companies including Total SA, China’s Cnooc Ltd. and London-based Tullow Oil Plc developing the East African nation’s estimated 6.5 billion barrels of crude resources. Opposition leader Kizza Besigye has called for demonstrations against the planned amendment, while the homes of two lawmakers who oppose the change have been attacked by assailants who threw hand grenades, local broadcaster NBS Television reported on its Twitter account.
In Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo efforts by leaders to change constitutional rules to retain power have sparked instability.
Museveni is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders alongside Teodero Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Uganda abolished a limit of two five-year terms in 2005, allowing Museveni, who first took power as a guerrilla leader in 1986, to prolong his rule. The latest elections were held in 2016.
Editing by Andrew Roche