http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/47237-nrm-casts-doubt-on-age-limit-survey-report

NRM casts doubt on age-limit survey report

Written by Sadab Kitatta Kaaya

The NRM secretariat has responded angrily to survey findings showing that 73% of Members of Parliament do not support amending the constitution to eliminating the age limit for aspiring presidential candidates.

According to the survey report released by Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy (CCEDU) this week, among the NRM MPs who were interviewed, 65 per cent indicated that they would not support such an amendment.

Responding to the findings of the survey in an interview with The Observer on Thursday, NRM secretary general Justine Kasule Lumumba, said "it is premature" to conduct such surveys. She cautioned the pollsters to "stop putting the country in a political mood."

"We expect CCEDU to be concentrating on making NRM deliver on what we promised the country in our [election] manifesto," she added.

Much as parliament will have the final say on the age limit issue, Lumumba said, the specific question on the lifting of the presidential age limits is a matter to be determined by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC).

However, some prominent NRM leaders are already pushing for the amendment of Article 102(b) to remove the upper age cap of 75 years for anyone aspiring to be president.

The Kyankwanzi NRM district conference took the lead, passing a resolution in July that urged their MPs to support such a move. The resolution was handed to Museveni early in August at the conclusion of a cabinet retreat at the National Leadership Institute Kyankwanzi.
SURVEY FINDINGS

The survey was conducted by CCEDU and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) between September 16 and October 7, not long after the collapse of a motion by Nakifuma MP Robert Kafeero Ssekitooleko to introduce a private member's bill to amend the constitution.

While Ssekitooleko's bill was silent on Article 102(b) of the constitution that fixes the age for presidential aspirants at 75, many political analysts saw it as a decoy for the same.

The politics that played out during the tabling of Ssekitooleko's bill influenced the NGOs to study the MPs' attitudes to electoral reforms. According to NDI's resident director in Uganda, Simon Osborn, the survey targeted all the 324 directly-elected MPs, excluding government ministers "because they are always bound by cabinet decisions."

NDI is an American non-profit organisation that works with partners in developing countries to increase the effectiveness of democratic institutions.

"We randomly selected 196 MPs from a stratified sample of the target group by geographical region, MP mandate and political party affiliation and interviewed 185 [of them]," Osborn said during the launch of the report on Monday at Nsambya, Kampala.

The MPs were interviewed by phone for an average of 38 minutes each. Although the pollsters gave their findings a margin of error of + or -1.5%, the NRM secretariat expressed doubt that the report represents the true picture of MPs' attitudes on this issue.

"First of all, we don't know how they conducted the survey. They could have given the MPs leading questions, and there is no evidence that they conducted the survey," Lumumba told The Observer on Thursday.

The NRM secretariat's spokesman, Rogers Mulindwa, cast similar doubts on the report, telling The Observer on Tuesday: "It is possible majority of the respondents were not NRM MPs. They could have been either opposition or independents."

According to Mulindwa, some of the NRM respondents could have been reluctant when answering the survey questions because to them it is too early to talk about lifting the age limit.

"Some responses could have been against it [lifting the age limit] because we have not made it an issue. If we make it an issue and it goes through the right procedures, the dynamics will change," Mulindwa said.

"Some MPs could have spoken independently because the party caucus hadn't sat but if they were speaking after the party had taken a position, I doubt whether the survey would have come up with such figures," he added.

During Monday's launch of the report, the question of NRM MPs' consistency kept coming up, with some of those present wondering whether the 65% can stick to their position once such an amendment goes to parliament.

"It is possible that some of them answered that way because they felt that a 'no' is the answer we wanted to hear," one of the pollsters conceded.

Among opposition MPs, 97% said they would not support the amendment while 81% of the independents indicated that they would vote against such as proposal.

According to the report, support for amending the age-limit clause is highest among MPs from northern Uganda at 33% followed by their colleagues from the East at 30%. The report also suggests that the proposal is likely to get more support from district woman MPs (28%) compared to constituency MPs (26%).
NAME THEM

Mulindwa challenged the NGOs to reveal the names of their respondents for the ruling party to look at the findings with a degree of credibility.

"They could have interviewed aggrieved party members; those with court cases," Mulindwa said.

But Crispy Kaheru, ccedu coordinator, told The Observer that CCEDU will not breach the respondents' confidentiality as it embarks on a campaign to encourage MPs to openly pronounce themselves on what they stand for.

He added that CCEDU is also planning to reactivate its electoral reforms taskforce that brings together civil society organisations (CSOs) in the campaign for electoral reforms.

"We are undertaking a multiplicity of actions including diplomacy – lobbying the MPs to support the reforms, and open advocacy," Kaheru said.
ELECTORAL COMMISSION

On reforming the appointment of the Electoral Commission (EC), 77% of the MPs supported the idea of a selection process involving applications and public scrutiny by an independent body, parliamentary vetting and finally presidential approval.

The tenure of the current EC expires on November 17 but political parties, under the interparty organisation for dialogue (IPOD), have asked President Museveni to delay fresh appointments until a new formula has been agreed with all parties.

"We sought audience with the president, and have also written a follow-up letter asking him to halt the appointment of a new EC until a formula is agreed upon [by all the parties]," said DP secretary general, Mathias Nsubuga Birekeraawo.

IPOD is a platform that brings together all political parties with representation in parliament.
sadabkk@observer.ug