A section of opposition legislators maybe at a risk of losing their seats in parliament, if they miss 14 sittings, Speaker Anita Annet Among has ruled.
Speaker Among said during the plenary on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, that she is going to evoke the rule on 15 sittings, as per Article 83 of the Ugandan constitution, if opposition legislators miss the plenary 15 times.
“I am going to evoke the rule in 15 sittings and I want you MPs to come to the House, don’t be deceived that you can walk out. I will count 15 sittings,” she said.
Among advised the opposition legislators on boycott to desist from walking out of the parliament because they cannot fight from outside. Among said the opposition should remain in the house instead of lamenting from outside.
“You don’t fight when you are out, you fight when you are inside here. Just like in a home, when you are in a home and you are fighting with a woman, don’t runaway, be there, so that we see, who is who. So, it isn’t good for us to go out and start lamenting from out,”she said.
Macho Geoffrey (Busia Municipality) said the opposition legislators should stop complaining about human rights and civic rights of Ugandans from the streets because it doesn’t benefit them, and urged them to return to Partiament.
“Our brothers and sisters in the Opposition, it doesn’t benefit them to go complaining on the streets about the human rights and civic rights of Ugandans when they are out of the house…I therefore call upon them to come back,” he said.
Macho also castigated the government for delaying to respond to issues raised by the opposition, saying the more they delay, the more they give gap to the opposition to show that the NRM government is not performing.
Opposition legislators, largely from National Unity Platform (NUP), have boycotted parliamentary sittings for six consecutive weeks. The boycott began on October 10, 2023, when the government failed to give an explanation for the arrest of NUP leaders and supporters, that occurred on Independence Day.
The boycott was escalated further when Mathias Mpuuga (leader of opposition) asked the government to give a detailed explanation about the alleged abductions of NUP supporters and other human rights abuses.
What the Law Stipulates.
According to article 83 of the Ugandan constitution, a member may lose his seat, if he or she misses 15 consecutive sittings without any written permission from the speaker, and s/he fails to offer satisfactory reasons for his or her absence from the parliament while it sat continuously.