6 MPs to Appeal ‘Wrong’ Age Limit Ruling in Supreme Court

Six Members of Parliament have said they intend to appeal against the age limit judgment delivered by the Constitutional Court last week.

The MPs including Mubarak Munyagwa,
Gerald Karuhanga, Jonathan Odur, Allan Ssewanyana, Ibrahim Ssemuju Nganda and Winnie Kiiza are set to challenge the court’s decision.

“It was wrong for the Judges to say that the validity of the entire act was not affected by the glaring discrepancies and variances between the Speaker’s certificate of compliance and the Bill assented to by the President,” said Erias Lukwago, who represented the MPs.

Lukwago told journalists that it was wrong for the court to uphold lifting of the Presidential age limit from the constitution, adding that the decision will plunge the country into more problems.

“Violence by the army storming Parliament and police stopping opposition MPs from consulting was enough for court to nullify the Bill,” another lawyer, Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi said.

According to the lawyers, they will rely on the Supreme Court to “redeem the country from the mess it’s about it fall into”.

Last week, the Constitutional Court delivered its long awaited ruling on the contentious constitutional amendments which were challenged in a consolidated petition.

Majority of the 5 Justices of the Constitutional Court upheld the removal of the Presidential age limit from the constitution by Parliament last year.

Four out of five Justices ruled that the amendment of Article 102 (b) of the Constitution did not contravene the Constitution, neither did it contravene Parliament’s rules of procedure.

These were Justice Cheborion Barishaki, Elizabeth Musoke, Alphonse Owiny-Dollo and Remmy Kasule.

In his ruling, Deputy Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny-Dollo said that by design, the Article in question was not in its passing in 1995 gazetted as a fundamental feature of the Constitution requiring entrenchment.

The issue on which the entire bench was in agreement was the extension of the term of legislators and local government elected leaders which they all say was done unlawfully.