President Yoweri Museveni will most definitely welcome the proposition to amend the national constitution to set aside the presidential age limit, which as it stands today, cuts him out of the next (2021) elections.
This is according to Museveni’s four-time presidential contender and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)’s Col Dr Kizza Besigye.
Col. Besigye says Museveni will most likely pretend to exhibit lack of interest in the constitutional amendment, but eventually he will agree to the removal of the age limit.
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Besigye was addressing a group of lawyers in the United States under the New York City Bar, concerning the current political affairs in Uganda.
He angrily apportioned blame onto Uganda’s parliament, as one the institutions that have not changed since the colonial era, to serve the Ugandan citizens rather than the people in power.
Besigye described Parliament as “extremely compliant” to President Yoweri Museveni and its members as “agents of the dictator.”
Listing a number of occasions where the parliament has backtracked and rescinded its decisions after being coerced and manipulated by the President, Dr Besigye told the US lawyers that removing the presidential age limit was only a matter of time.
The currently constitutional provision curtails any person who has clocked 75 years to run for president.
“Mr. Museveni now; well, originally he said he didn’t know when he was born, but most recently he assigned himself a birthday,” said Besigye as the audience chuckled.
“Unfortunately that birthday makes him 72 years which means that he would not be eligible in the next round of elections.
“A resolution has already been tabled to the council of the (ruling) party from one of the districts, calling the party to change the constitution and remove that restriction.
“As usual of course, Mr. Museveni will say ‘I am not interested in this; it is public demand as you can see. I am only a public servant and I have nothing to do but allow the amendment of the constitution.’”
With only a few months into the new term, the debate on the next (2021) presidential elections is already coming to the fore.
This week, an opposition political leader Betty Namisango Kamya, who was recently appointed minister in charge of Kampala, made known of her commitment to campaign for President Museveni come 2021.
She also pledged to help the president win the capital – which has always been an opposition stronghold, — by 80% of the vote.
President Museveni, who was touring market traders in Kawempe division however, declined to make a comment on the matter.