Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) have called on the Judiciary to “stand with the people of Uganda” in their hearing and ruling in the petition challenging the constitutional amendment that removed Presidential age limit.
Today, hearing of the petition filed by Opposition MPs and Uganda Law Society contesting the legality of the process of passing the contentious amendment, began in Mbale and is being presided over by Deputy Chief Justice, Alphonse Owing Dollo.
The other 4 Justices of the Constitutional Court on the panel are Remmy Kasule, Elizabeth Musoke, Kenneth Kakuru and Cheborion Barishaki.
In his comments during a news conference on Monday, FDC President, Patrick Amuriat Oboi appealed to the Judges in the petition to stand with the population and “to see sense in what petitioners will be putting to them in the coming days”.
“This is a matter in which the public have an interest. If the Judiciary downplays our issues in this petition, our appellant court is the people of Uganda,” Amuriat told the press at the FDC headquarters in Najjanankumbi on Monday morning.
He vowed that the questions surrounding the constitutionality of the December 2017 amendments “won’t be finished until it is resolved in the favour of the people”.
Last year, Parliament passed constitutional amendments that included repealing the upper age limit of 75 for one to be eligible to stand for President. However, opposition politicians strongly opposed the move which they said was paving way for President Museveni now 73 to run again for a sixth term come 2021.
The opposition MPs have persistently faulted President Museveni and the 317 legislators who voted in favour of the amendment for disregarding the will and views that Ugandans gave during the pre-amendment consultations.
They say that the MPs who supported the amendments including the extension of their tenure from 5 to 7 years did so for selfish motives and not in the interest of their constituents.
Asked how the petitioning side is prepared to avoid a reoccurrence of the events of 2016 when the legal team in the former Presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi election petition seemed unprepared, Amuriat said that this time, the lawyers in the petition have taken their time to build their case.
“We have a very competent legal team that we have confidence in. They are up to he task. Apart from the legal team, we also have an army of legal advisors who will make an input in what happens in court,” the FDC President said.
He said that unlike the election petition of Amama Mbabazi in which the petitioners were accorded inadequate time to prepare a bulk of evidence, “we have been preparing for this petition since December last year when the amendment was passed”.