{UAH} Uganda: Elections Should Be Postponed to 2021

Uganda: Elections Should Be Postponed to 2021

BY GEORGE WILLIAM ALENYO, 17 APRIL 2014

Photo: RNW

National Resistance Movement supporters (file photo).

When news broke that a group of MPs were drafting a bill to extend the 2016 elections to 2021, some people argued that this could only be after a constitutional amendment.

Let me state from the outset, that there would be no need for an amendment, if Ugandans wanted the said change. The 1995 Constitution is the supreme law of Uganda but subject to and under the sovereignty and wishes of Ugandans. (See chapter one of the Constitution).

This means that if the people of Uganda want the 2016 elections postponed, then the Constitution cannot prevent them. Whenever citizens want to express their direct wish, they do so through a referendum.

Article 255(3) provides that, once the referendum result is out, then the people have spoken and all persons, organs and agencies of government are bound. Therefore, if the people of Uganda, through a referendum, decide to postpone the 2016 elections, these elections shall be postponed.

The Constitution provides for a periodic five-year election where Ugandans elect who should govern them. After 2011, the next elections are due in 2016. However, article 1(4) of the Constitution provides that the people of Uganda shall use either general elections or a referendum to determine who shall govern them.

Therefore, in 2016, we can hold a referendum and extend the whole government for the next five years. During this referendum, we can choose to extend the President's term, that of select MPs and of local council chairpersons and councilors. It is therefore constitutional and legal to postpone the 2016 elections.

Indeed I am giving legal counsel and guidance to a group of people from Bujawe in Hoima district who have already started a legal and constitutional process to have the 2016 general elections postponed to 2021. With this, we can avoid a nationwide general election for LC-Vs and LC-IIIs and their councillors and instead have select elections in constituencies whose leaders' tenure have failed to be endorsed for extension along with that of the president during the referendum.

The people of Bujawe believe that avoiding the expensive general elections and going for a cheaper option (the referendum) shall save money to be used for other development work, service delivery and providing compensation for wrongs committed against people by government agencies.

After issuing national IDs, conducting a national census and with all LC-I chairpersons elected, a free and fair referendum can be cheaply held. This can be through use of every village as a polling point. In any case, there are several and different reasons why people see the 2016 elections as neither necessary nor feasible:

Government says it needs $15bn (Shs 45 trillion) for the Bunyoro oil refinery and pipelines, Shs 400bn for the ID project, Shs 500bn for the National census and nearly Shs 1 trillion for 2016-elections-related expenditure.

This is a sum unaffordable by any Third World country without external support. All the above expenditures have to take place between 2014 and 2016. We should remember that we, as a nation, stood behind President Museveni and supported the signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law - with the anticipated consequence of aid cuts.

Unless China has accepted to bankroll all our expenditure or unless we shall return to the vomit and accept Western aid out of taxes collected from gays in Europe and America, then, financially, the 2016 elections are unaffordable. The second reason is strategic. I think no political party in Uganda is ready for the 2016 elections. Political parties including NRM, UPC, DP, CP and FDC are unprecedentedly fractured.

Their current internal wrangles are likely to spill over to national chaos and instability. I believe NRM knows that the 2016 elections should be postponed but is afraid to speak out for fear of being called dictatorial. The opposition parties also know that they are divided and weak and would not afford to fund, run and win the 2016 elections and yet they fear to speak out for postponement as they would be termed cowards.

In honour of Museveni's nearly three decades in power and service to Ugandans, he deserves a soft landing in 2021 and we should extend his rule till then. This national consensus shall also send a message to the rest of the world that in Africa we can handle our democracy, stability and peace in more than one way.

Indeed, on February 12 (even before the MPs' extension proposal), the people of Bujawe served the EC chairperson with a notice that they had started the process of seeking the extension by collecting signatures for a referendum.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower