24 November 2008
Kampala — The electoral laws have to be amended due to court judgments made over the past few years.
The justice and constitutional affairs minister, Dr Khiddu Makubuya, said this on Friday at a workshop on multiparty democracy and electoral reforms in Uganda at the Speke Resort Munyonyo.
Makubuya cited the case where Forum for Democratic Change chairman of the party's electoral commission, Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga, petitioned the Constitutional Court over the local council elections in 2006.
Ruranga complained that the elections were to be conducted using the Local Government Act, which he said did not reflect a multiparty political dispensation.
An injunction was issued stopping the elections from being conducted under the Act.
Makubuya, who is also the Attorney General, presented a paper entitled 'The Presidential Elections Act and other electoral laws in view of the past court judgments'.
Citing former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye's petition against President Yoweri Museveni in 2006, Makubuya said the seven Supreme Court judges were unanimous in their findings of disenfranchisement by deletion of voters from the voters register.
He also quoted the judges as saying that academic qualifications had remained a fundamental problem during elections.
"I propose that the electoral laws be amended to exempt the Electoral Commission from liability if a person who is not qualified is nominated on the basis of academic certificates from the education council," Makubuya said.
The minister also called for tougher penalties on those who commit electoral offences.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
