Inside Opposition electoral reforms

The Opposition is seeking leave to table different electoral and constitutional reforms ahead of 2026 General Elections.
Daily Monitor has seen seven draft Bills which seek to, among others, amend certain provisions of the Constitution and other Acts of Parliament to split the legislative branch into two while reducing its size; create the position of a Deputy President to be elected by the population; and also allow voters challenge the outcome of the presidential elections in case they are aggrieved.
Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the mover of the Bills who is also the Nyendo-Mukungwe lawmaker, petitioned the Speaker of Parliament on October 4, asking the House to grant him leave so that he tables the Bills which when passed will change the political landscape of the country.
The Bills seen by this newspaper include Constitution (Amendment) Bill, Electoral Commission (Amendment) Bill, Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill, Political Parties and Organisations (Amendment) Bill, Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill, Local Government (Amendment) Bill, and the Referendum and other Provisions (Amendment) Bill.
Mr Mpuuga says he will embark on public consultation once he is granted leave by Parliament.
Opposition political players and experts yesterday welcomed the reforms but cast doubt about whether they will ever see the light of the day. This comes nearly five years after Shadow Attorney General Wilfred Niwagaba proposed a number of electoral and Constitutional reforms in 2019. The country also continues to wait for Mr Norbert Mao, the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, to table electoral reforms.
Inside the Bills
Mr Mpuuga, the immediate former Leader of Opposition in Parliament, wants Parliament to amend Articles 259 and 262 of the Constitution, to among others, reconstitute the composition of Parliament, restore presidential term limits, and establish a bicameral legislature.
This amendment will also require any victorious presidential candidate to obtain 25 percent of the votes in each of the four regions, including eastern, northern, western and central. It also proffers the enactment of a law providing for transfer of the executive power after the expiration of a term of office of the President.
Once amended, the Office of the Vice President will be scrapped and replaced with that of Deputy President whose bearer will be voted by the population. Elsewhere, a registered voter will have the power to challenge the outcomes of the elections in court.
Any lawmaker appointed to a ministerial position will immediately resign their legislative role if Mr Mpuuga has his way. The proposed reforms also empower the Prime Minister to advise the President on appointment of ministers.
Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill
The Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill seeks to create two Parliaments (bicameral Parliament), including the National Assembly and the Senate. 
According to the draft Bill, the National Assembly will comprise lawmakers from each of the 146 districts and cities, 50 members designated by political parties and organisations, and ministers who shall be ex-officio members without a voting right.
The Senate on the other hand will consist of 39 members elected from specified districts in the Third Schedule (A) of the Constitution, a majority leader, a minority leader, and ministers who will be ex-officio members without voting rights.
The Third Schedule (A) of the Constitution consists of 56 Uganda’s indigenous communities that were documented as of February 1, 1926.
“The reconstitution of Parliament is intended to reduce the size of Parliament, which currently stands at 529 Members of Parliament and 28 ex-officio members, in order to reduce the cost associated with maintaining, remunerating and providing facilities to Members of Parliament,” the Bill reads in part.
Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill
Mr Mpuuga under the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill, wants the House to amend the Presidential Elections Act, to among others, require a presidential candidate to nominate a Deputy President who will be their running mate at the time of nomination. 
Unlike now when the Vice President is appointed by the President, this amendment will mean that whoever will stand for the position of Deputy President will be voted by the majority.
This Bill also seeks to prescribe the security detail to be provided to a presidential candidate; require the victorious presidential candidate to have obtained the highest votes and at least 25 percent in each of the four regions; require a presidential candidate to campaign in at least half of the districts; and require the returning officer to issue a certificate of presidential results to the Commission. 
It also requires the presidential results to be transmitted to the Chief Justice and Speaker, and the Electoral Commission to allocate a special identifier number to each polling station.
The backbench Parliamentary Commissioner also wants certain provisions in the Electoral Commission to be enacted in order to allow Ugandans living abroad to vote through their embassies. The Bill also seeks to stop the disenfranchisement of prisoners. 
Mr Mpuuga as well wants the Local Government Act to be amended so as to duly remove a county as an administrative unit.
Referendum and Other Provisions (Amendment) Bill
Under the Referendum and Other Provisions (Amendment) Bill, Mr Mpuuga wants the EC to hold a referendum on the same day as a presidential, general parliamentary or local government council election. 
He also wants the Political Parties and Organisations Act to be revised in order to clarify the provisions relating to the formation of coalitions and mergers by political parties and political organisations.
Political players react
Different political players and experts have welcomed the reforms with guarded optimism.
Mr Patrick Amuriat Oboi, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party president, said the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has since 2004 frustrated their efforts of tabling similar reforms.
“All his reforms are desirable, but we doubt if the NRM government is interested. They will again use their old tactics of saying that it’s too late to frustrate them,” he said.
Ms Alice Alaso Asianut, the Ag National Coordinator of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) party, told Daily Monitor thus: “We are supportive of electoral reforms and the return of term limits is important for the stability of Uganda. But without a goodwill from the Executive, I fear his aspiration may not come to light. Without Executive goodwill, [Mr Mpuuga] may not go beyond notice to Parliament or he could end up with a token amendment like a name for the family independent EC without independence in behaviour.”
NRM is currently the majority number in the August House, with 337 members. Independents (87), National Unity Platform (57), FDC (31), Uganda Peoples Congress (11), the Democratic Party (nine), the People’s Progressive Party (one) and Justice Forum (one) follow in that order.
Combined together all Opposition members and independent legislators, whose majority are NRM leaning, cannot make even half of the House yet the motion in Parliament needs at least two-thirds of the members to vote in its support to pass.
Mr Fred Ebil, the secretary general of the UPC, said they are awaiting an official communication from Mr Mpuuga. This, he added, will prompt them to sit with their Parliamentary Caucus and decide on the position.
Ms Sarah Birete, a political expert and executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance, welcomed the reforms which she said are necessary. She, however, hastened to add that they come way too late to impact the upcoming 2026 elections.
“We need to shift to the timeline for amendments set by the Supreme Court in the Amama Mbabazi petition of the first two years after elections. The proposal to restore term limits of presidents is welcome because peaceful change of leadership will gradually improve democracy through strengthening institutions to act independent of leaders,” she said.
She added: “The proposal to reduce the size of Parliament is good because it will help the country attain a manageable size of Parliament that can conduct research and legislate from an informed point of view. These decisions will also help the country save money and reduce the skyrocketing public debt.”
Relatedly, Ms Charity Ahimbisibwe, the executive director of the Electoral Law and Governance Institute, said: “If prisoners were supposed to vote a register would be prepared but knowing the voter number is known but putting together who is eligible is quite difficult. Restoration of term limits is okay because already all people who have been agitating for reforms are calling for their restoration and lastly the Ugandans abroad voting is also tricky because the Gender ministry does not have exact accurate data on the Ugandans living abroad.”
When contacted, Mr Julius Mucunguzi, the Electoral Commission spokesperson, said it is ready to implement the reforms if they are amended in time and sent to them.
Mpuuga, Ssenyonyi clash
When contacted yesterday, Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Parliament, who also doubles as the spokesperson of NUP, described the reforms as a “hoax.”
“Soon people will know the real ‘thing’ behind the red herring of his ‘reforms.’ Otherwise as a Member of Parliament, he has a right to bring a private member's Bill, and we wish him success!” he said.
In response Mr Mpuuga said: “The Opposition leadership has been very clear on reforms; that they are interested in elections not reforms. The current LoP has said severally that they are not interested! I hosted the entire opposition leadership in a two-day meeting to discuss reforms before elections! I had desired that the demand for reforms before the next election would form a fulcrum of the Opposition agenda! Unfortunately, they have elected to go for personal political survival rather than grand national issues.”
The Nyendo-Mukungwe lawmaker added: “It’s the first time in the life of political Opposition in Uganda that the Opposition is eager to follow what the regime is offering! They are complicit in whatever is not working.”
2016 Supreme Court directives
The question of electoral reforms has dragged on for some years now. In its ruling of the 2016 election petition that was filed by former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi, the Supreme Court issued 10 recommendations as electoral reforms that had to be implemented in order to witness a free and fair election.
These included: time for filing and determination of a presidential election petition be increased from 30 to at least 60 days; the use of oral evidence in addition to affidavit evidence be accepted in court; time for holding a fresh election where the previous elections has been nullified be increased from the currently prescribed 20 days; and the use of technology in elections be backed by law.
Others were: sanctions against any State organ or officer who violates provisions of the law with regard to access to State-owned media be provided; election related law reform be undertaken within two years of the establishment of the new Parliament; laws be enacted to prohibit the giving of donations (during campaign periods) by all candidates including a President, who is also a candidate; laws prohibiting public servants from getting involved in political campaigns be made more explicit; laws be amended to make it permissible for the Attorney General to be made respondent in a presidential election petition where necessary; and that the Attorney General be the authority to follow-up with the Supreme Court's recommendations.
Electoral reforms
• Restoration of Presidential term limits.
• Victorious presidential candidate to obtain 25 percent of the votes in each of the four regions.
• A presidential candidate to nominate a Deputy President who will be their running mate at the time of nomination.
• Office of the Vice President will be scrapped and replaced with that of Deputy President.
• Deputy president to be voted by the population.
• A registered voter will have powers to challenge the outcomes of the elections in court.
• Any MP appointed on a ministerial position to immediately resign their legislative role.
• The Prime Minister advises the President on the appointment of ministers.
• Creation of two Parliaments (bicameral Parliament), including the National Assembly and the Senate.
• National Assembly to comprise MPs from each of the 146 district and cities, 50 members designated by political parties and organisations, and ministers who shall be ex-officio members without a voting right.
• The Senate consists of 39 members elected from specified districts in the Third Schedule (A) of the Constitution, a Majority Leader, a Minority Leader, and ministers who will be ex-officio members without voting rights.
• Prescription of the security detail to be provided to a presidential candidate.
• The returning officer to issue a certificate of presidential results to the Commission.
• Presidential results to be transmitted to the Chief Justice and Speaker.
• Remove a county as an administrative unit. Electoral reforms by Niwagaba 2019
• Restoration of term limits. • All ministers must not be MPs.
• Increasing the Commissioners of Electoral Commission from seven to nine members.
• Tenure of Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General revised to five years, renewable only once.
• Leader of the Opposition to be an ex-officio MP.
• Remove representation of the army from Parliament. • Parliamentary Commissioners appointed by Public Service.
• Civil servants joining elective politics will seek leave not resigning as it is now.
• Reduce number of ministers to 21