The Ugandan Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal challenging the scrapping of the presidential age limit from the constitution, clearing the way for President Yoweri Museveni to bid for a sixth term.
While three of the seven Supreme Court Judges ruled nullifying the scrapping of the presidential age limit from the constitution four others ruling in favour of the scrapping.
The justices who ruled for nullification include Paul Mugamba, Eldard Mwanguhya and Lillian Tibatemwa.
The three judges argued that the process leading to the conceptualization of Constitutional (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2017, which paved the way for the scrapping of the presidential age limit was illegal.
Their main argument is that there was no valid certificate of compliance accompanying the Bill, which the president assented to in December, 2017.
Justices Apio Aweri, Stella Arach Amoko, Jotham Tumwesigye and Chief Justice Bart Katureebe upheld the Constitutional Court verdict that rendered the removal of the presidential age limit lawful.
The appeal stems from a Constitutional Court judgment delivered by a panel of five judges in 2018 where four of them voted upholding the constitutional amendment, which lifted the 75-year presidential age cap.
Following the constitutional court judgment, city lawyer Male Mabirizi, six opposition members of Parliament and Uganda Law Society petitioned the Supreme Court on 16 grounds indicating that the constitutional court judges erred in law.
The lifting of the presidential age now means that president Yoweri Muscveni who will be above the 75 years age cap by 2021 elections is free to stand for another term.
CN/as/APA