Uganda Ruling Party Wants to Extend President’s Rule to 2035

Posted by African Examiner African News, East/Central Africa, Latest Headlines Tuesday, February 27th, 2018

Uganda’s ruling party is pushing for a referendum that could extend the longtime president’s rule to 2035.

Rogers Mulindwa, a spokesman for the National Resistance Movement party, says the referendum to extend the president’s term from five years to seven most certainly will happen in 2018.

In December, lawmakers passed a contentious bill that removed a measure in the constitution preventing anyone older than 75 from being president. The bill also imposed a two-term limit on the presidency, starting in 2021.

President Yoweri Museveni, 73 and in power since 1986, is now eligible to seek two more terms when his current term expires in 2021.

Because lawmakers have extended their terms from five years to seven, the ruling party says the president’s term should be extended to align all elections./VOA