Lawmakers brawled in Uganda’s parliament for a second day running on Wednesday over a fiercely disputed move to change the constitution to let long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni run for re-election after age 75. MPs exchanged blows and kicks, with some using microphone stands as crude weapons in the melee, and at least two female lawmakers were carried out of the chamber after collapsing, a Reuters journalist on the scene said.
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At least 25 MPs opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment to prolong Museveni’s tenure were forcibly ejected on orders of the speaker for involvement in fighting on Tuesday. All other like-minded MPs then walked out. After calm returned, ruling party MP Raphael Magyezi introduced the contested motion authorizing parliament to draft and present a bill that would lift the constitution’s age cap on presidential candidates. The motion passed, parliament communications director Chris Obore told Reuters, adding that Magyezi would have about a month to submit the bill to a first reading in the House. Under the existing constitution, eligibility to stand as a presidential candidate in the East African country has an age ceiling of 75. That makes Museveni, 73, in power since 1986 and increasingly accused of authoritarianism and a failure to curb corruption, unqualified to seek re-election at the next polls in 2021. Removing the age cap would erase that barrier.
The proposal, echoing steps by other veteran African leaders to void legal limits on their rule, has stirred widespread resistance from rights activists, opposition parties, religious leaders and even some members of Museveni’s party. Fisticuffs first broke out in the Kampala parliament on Tuesday, leading Uganda’s communication regulator to ban live broadcasts of events “inciting the public”.
In a notice on Wednesday, the Uganda Communications Commission said radio and television stations should stop live broadcasts of events that “are inciting the public, discriminating, stirring up hatred, promoting a culture of violence … and are likely to create public insecurity.” No station aired Wednesday’s proceedings, but some posted clips of the brawls on their Twitter feeds.
Source: Reuters
