Kumi woman Member of Parliament, Monicah Amoding has downplayed threats by the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party to discipline NRM legislators who voted against scrapping of the Presidential age limits last year.
Parliament in December last year removed the upper Presidential age cap of 75 years with 317 lawmakers voting in favour while 92 voted against the Bill. Twenty seven (27) of those who voted against the Bill were from the ruling NRM party.
In a caucus meeting days later attended by many NRM legislators including EALA MPS, it was resolved that the party chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa would write to the 27 MPs seeking that they explain why they went against the agreed party position on the Age Limit bill.
However, MP Amoding says that no MP can be disciplined for voicing his/her people’s “popular view” and that the party leadership ought to know they were in the wrong to stop the MPs from standing for what their electorate has told them.
“There is nothing like that. If it was a serious issue, they would be following it up because they know they are in the wrong. Why do you victimize people for voting according to the people’s will?, she asked.
“Even majority of those who voted Yes, went against their people’s popular view. So, there is nothing they are going to discipline anyone for because we went for consultations,” she added.
Amoding was among the NRM MPs who stormed out of the party Parliamentary caucus when the proposal for the constitutional amendments first came up.
“It is an illegality to even talk about, there was no predetermined position by the party that this is how we have to vote, otherwise MPS wouldn’t have been sent to consult,” Amoding added in an exclusive interview with SoftPower News.
Some of the 27 NRM MPS who voted against the bill include Hellen Kahunde, Connie Nakayenze Galiwango, Norah Bigirwa, Anthony Ssemuli, Suzan Amero, Loy Katali, Monica Amoding, Sylvia Rwabogo and Henry Maurice Kibalya.
Some of them have previously vowed not to face the party disciplinary body saying they are unapologetic for their position in regard to the amendment.
