Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday said a recent court ruling barring the extension of the term of parliament and local councils was undemocratic.
Museveni in a statement said the judges of the Constitutional Court focused on procedure and not substance.
The five judges of the court on July 26 ruled that the procedure to extend the term of parliament and that of local council was wrongly done by parliament.
They said the legislators did not consult the electorates.
They maintained that the term of parliament should remain at five years and not seven years as legislators decided.
Museveni argued that with five years, a lot of time is spent on electioneering and less on development.
Museveni said if the ruling party National Resistance Movement legislators bond closely with the people, constitutional reforms can be made with or without judges.
“The Constitution should facilitate the modernisation of Uganda and the economic and political integration of Africa for the survival of the people Africa as free people, not just the theater of democracy of form without addressing substance,” he said.
Museveni seemed to have sided with the judges in their ruling that the removal of the age cap at which one can run for presidency was constitutional.
The judges in a four-to-one ruling said parliaments’ removal of the age cap did not contravene the country’s constitution.
Critics argued that the procedure in parliament to remove the age limit was characterized by violence and that the decision was aimed at paving way for Museveni, who has been in power for over 30 years to run again for the presidency in the 2021 elections.
Parliament in December 2017 amended the country’s constitution in which it removed the age limit of 75 years as maximum and 35 years as minimum for one to run for presidency.
