Ugandan lawyers petition court to annul recently signed law removing presidential age limit

KAMPALA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan lawyers on Monday filed a petition at the Constitutional Court seeking orders for the annulment of the controversial bill signed into law by Presidential Yoweri Museveni for the removal of the presidential age limit of 75 years.

The lawyers, led by Uganda Law Society (ULS), want the constitutional court in the capital, Kampala to declare null and void the constitutional amendment act that scrapped the presidential age limit of 75 years to allow president Museveni to contest in the 2021 elections.

ULS, an umbrella organization of Uganda's lawyers, led by their president Francis Gimara in the petition, state that the process leading to amendment of the contentious bill was marred with violence, intimidation, abuse of fundamental human rights, general mayhem, security officers evading parliament and assaulting lawmakers, which undermined its integrity and independence.

The lawyers also want court to declare the lawmaker's extension of their parliamentary and local government term of office from the current five years to seven years, starting with the current term, which was set to expire in 2021 without the people's mandate, unconstitutional.

William Byaruhanga, Uganda's Attorney General has been listed as the only respondent to the petition.

On Dec. 27, President Museveni signed into law the constitutional amendment bill 2 of 2017 to scrap the presidential age limit of 75 years, which allows him to contest in the 2021 elections.

A total of 317 lawmakers mainly from Museveni's ruling party, National Resistance Movement (NRM) on Dec. 20, 2017 voted for the amendment of Article 102 (b) to scrap the presidential age limit of 75 years.

At least 62 legislators, mainly opposition, voted against the bill that removed a cap that barred any Ugandan citizen below the age of 35 or older than 75 years to hold office of the president in the East African country.

Opposition and campaigners who are opposed to the bill argue that the move by the ruling NRM was intended to allow Museveni, now 73, to run in the 2021 elections when he will be over 75. Enditem