Robert Kyagulayi the Kyandondo East Member of Parliament has written to the Electoral Commission Chairperson requesting for a copy of the national voters register to enable him collect signatures calling for a referendum on the controversial age limit debate.
“The purpose of this letter is to request you to avail me with copies of the national register of voters, which the commission is mandated to compile, maintain ad update under section 18 of the Electoral Commission Act. This will help us ascertain how many voters constitute the required one tenth in the respective districts to enable us collect their signatures as soon as possible,” reads Kyagulanyi’s Sept 16th letter to the EC Chairman, Justice Simon Byabakama.
The Commission acknowledged receipt of the letter on September 19th, 2017. Section 11 of the Referendum and other provisions Act of 2005 stipulates that “the Electoral Commission shall cause a referendum to be held nationally if a petition is made in writing and is supported by at least one tenth of the total registered voters from at least one third of the districts of Uganda.”
There are 116 districts in Uganda meaning that Kyagulanyi will collect signatures from 39 districts. According to Kyagulanyi, the referendum will ensure that Ugandans don’t continue to be sidelined, disfranchised and betrayed by a small clique of politicians. This follows a move by National Resistance Movement-NRM party legislators to introduce a private members bill seeking to scrap the presidential age limit from the constitution.
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