A survey by Afrobarometer shows that majority of Ugandans want the current constitutional presidential age limit of 75 years upheld.
The survey, conducted in December 2016 and January 2017, shows that 75 per cent of Ugandans ‘favour maintaining the age limit of 75 years on presidential candidates’ .The survey asked Ugandans about a number of electoral reforms.
Afrobarometer is a research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic issues among others, in 35 African countries.
In a press statement released on September 23, 2017, key findings show that 67 per cent of members of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party support maintaining the presidential age limit, while opposition FDC members support it by up to 90 per cent. Further, support for the age limit at 75 years is stronger among men and urban dwellers, according to Afrobarometer.
Dropping the existing age limit is the only one that failed to register majority support. In fact, popular support for the age limit is remarkably strong: The 75 per cent of respondents who want to keep the law include 62 per cent who say they feel ‘very strongly’ on the issue, and majority support holds across the political-party divide as well as across gender, age, education, and regional lines.
This comes in the wake of Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi (NRM) seeking to table a ‘private members bill’ today, in a move that is aimed at paving the way for the removal of the 75-year age limit cap from the Constitution, a development interpreted by many as leading to the ‘life presidency’ of incumbent President Yoweri Museveni.
Leading protagonists of the removal are led by State Minister for Investment Evelyn Anite and Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga, while antagonists include almost all opposition figures among them Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) President Major General (rtd) Mugisha Muntu, Democratic Party (DP) President Norbert Mao, and MPs Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, Medard Lubega Ssegona, Allan Sewanyana, Betty Nambooze Bakireke and the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.
Key findings of the Afrobarometer survey
Three-fourths (75 per cent) of Ugandans favour maintaining an age limit of 75 years on presidential candidates, including 62 % who say they ‘agree very strongly’ with this position.
Support for maintaining the age limit is even stronger among men (78 per cent) and urbanites (81 per cent) than among women (71 per cent) and rural residents (73 per cent).
More than eight in 10 Ugandans with at least a secondary education favour maintaining the age limit, compared to about seven in 10 among less-educated respondents. Even among National Resistance Movement (NRM) adherents, support for maintaining the age limit is high (67 per cent), though considerably weaker than among supporters of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) (90 per cent) and respondents who don’t identify with any party, standing at 77 percent.
Support for the age limit is greatest in Kampala (90 per cent) and Central region (86 per cent), dropping to 67 per cent in the Northern region.
