MPs oppose third term for Museveni

Ugandan opposition leaders have vowed to block the decision by the members of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) to allow President Yoweri Museveni to run for a third term in office. The decision to remove the presidential term limit provided for in the constitution was reached this week by some 200 members of the NRM's top decision-making organ, the National Executive Committee (NEC), at a conference in the capital, Kampala. Museveni, whose current term ends in 2006, is Uganda's longest-serving president. Betty Kamya, the spokeswoman for the Reform Agenda, a political pressure group led by Kiiza Besigye, Museveni's main challenger in the 2001 presidential elections, told IRIN that the NRM's action undermined the authority of the country's latest constitution, adopted in 1995. "It is just eight years down since we last promulgated our constitution, and we are now thinking of a third term, which should not be the case. Issues such as land and political pluralism should be the contentious issues our members should be discussing," she said. Norbert Mao, an opposition MP, told IRIN that he had started to mobilise his colleagues to oppose the bid when it came up for discussion in parliament. "I do not believe in this third term NEC members are talking about," Mao said. Aggrey Awori, another MP, said the bid to give Museveni a third term ran counter to the president's earlier promises. "He [Museveni] himself told us in parliament that he would not contest again. Now we want to see how he will present this to us," Awori told IRIN. Museveni banned political party activities in Uganda soon after coming to power, arguing that they had contributed to armed conflicts in the past. He instead established a "no party" system, presided over by the NRM, of which all Ugandans are constitutionally members. Under the current constitution, politicians can only run for office on individual merit and not along party lines. Some MPs and politicians have, however, expressed support for the idea of Museveni running for a third term. "There is no reason why we should have a term limit for Museveni if the people vote democratically for it. My constituents have accepted that President Museveni be given another term to rule and should not free political parties," Hope Mwesigye, an MP for Kabale District in western Uganda told IRIN.