Africa-Press – Uganda. Parliament yesterday endorsed the Cabinet’s extension of the mandate of lower local councils by six months amid protests by the Opposition.
Local Government minister Raphael Magyezi tabled for House approval a Statutory Instrument amending the Third Schedule to the Local Government Act, which he said the Executive revised to grant him powers to renew LCs’ tenure when it is “difficult or impossible” to hold elections.
Up until now, the law only empowered the line minister, with the approval of Cabinet, to extend the term of office of lower local governments by six months and, afterward, with a parliamentary resolution, but only if Uganda was in a state of emergency.
Neither situation was subsisting when the tenure of Local Council I and IIs lapsed on July 10.
The government claimed that it could not raise Shs58b that the Electoral Commission asked for to organise village and parish leadership elections.
“Notice is hereby given to the general public, pursuant to regulation 11A (d) of the Local Government Councils Regulations that the term of office of administrative unit councils existing at the commencement of the Local Governments (Amendment of Third Schedule) Instrument, 2023, is extended for a period not exceeding one hundred and eighty days from 10th July, 2023,” reads a notice signed by the minister.
The Statutory Instrument that the minister laid in the House yesterday amends the Third Schedule to the Local Governments Act that under the new Sub-section (d) provides that the tenure of LCs can be extended when “it has become extremely difficult or impossible to conduct elections …”
The Opposition, however, immediately read mischief in the amendment, with the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, calling the wording vague, susceptible to abuse and “a classical rule by law”.
“Who determines ‘extremely difficult’ and ‘impossible’ [parameters to defer elections]? This is going to be used by the government to inhibit the rights to vote. This provision is ambiguous and generally subjective. The right to vote is so important that any provision that seeks to inhibit it must be clear,” he said.
An attempt by Bugiri Municipality MP Asumani Basalirwa, who leads the Opposition JEEMA party, to insert a provision conditioning administrative renewal of the mandate of Local Council governments to financial handicaps, was thwarted.
Mr Basalirwa had argued that failure to provide specific qualifiers in the Statutory Instrument on what must make holding elections impossible, could enable a line minister to repeat term extensions and deprive voters of their sovereignty under Article 1 of the Constitution to choose their leaders and how they should be governed.
“I am moving an amendment that it [amendment introducing Sub-section (d) of the Third Schedule] should say ‘in a situation where finances are not available to organise local council elections. Secondly, the minister must go and gazette and provide clear timelines for the elections,” he submitted.
The holding of regular, fair, and credible elections, which establishes a contract between the leaders and the led, is provided for in the country’s supreme law and incumbents are to serve for a specific number of years.
The law provides that upon the lapse of the tenure, and unless situations of war or duly declared emergencies are subsisting to prevent polls, fresh elections shall be held for the electorate to decide whether to renew the mandate of office bearers or vote in replacements.
Based on this principle, the Constitutional Court nullified a 2017 amendment of the Constitution by members of the 10th Parliament to extend their term by two years without going through a vote, and the judges decided that renewal of a mandate for elective office bearers must precede consent of voters expressed through the ballot.
It is against this background that some lawmakers, and before them lawyers, argued that keeping LC officials through administrative measures and not elections amounts to appointment.
Yesterday’s victory that Mr Magyezi scored in Parliament ended weeks of shadow boxing between the Executive, which wanted expired terms of LCs arbitrarily extended, and the House, which preferred adherence to electoral laws.
At the height of the disagreement last week, Speaker Anita Among temporarily suspended plenary sitting until the government returned a substantive position on the fate of LC I and IIs.
It is that position duly approved by Cabinet and provisioned in a revised and gazetted Statutory Instrument that Local Government minister submitted and the House endorsed by acclamation.
Proponents of the amendment to the Local Government Act Regulations yesterday argued that the renewal of the mandate of the local leaders was essential because key services they provide had been paralysed since July 10 when the tenure on incumbents lapsed.
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