Electoral commission gives node to NRM Cadres to push for a referendum on constitutional amendments.

Under the Transformer Cadres Association, National Resistance Movement Cadres have in response to the letter they wrote to the Electoral commission been allowed to conduct a referendum exercise seeking to achieve constitutional amendments proposals including change of the political system of governance presidential to hybrid parliamentary where the head of state is elected by the parliament and district councilors, creating a second f parliament among other reforms.

According to the President of The Transformer Cadres Association, Hon Felix Adupa Ongwench, he said that out of the 18,258,590 voters on the electoral Commission registers, the referendum and other provisions under the Act of 2005 requires that at least one-tenth of the total registered voters at least one-third of the district in Uganda which he added that if guided by the by article 255 of the constitution and the referendum and other provisions act 2005, there hope that by 2025 the exercise will commence.

“We are glad to inform you that on March 14, 2022, the electoral Commission gave us a green light to start the exercise and asked that we be guided by Article 255 of the Constitution and the Referendum and other provisions Act 2005,” he said

 During a press conference held at Hoel Triangle in Kampala, pictured above, the cadres also express grievance over the death of The Rt. Hot Speaker of Parliament Jacob Olanya who died in Seattle in the USA on March 20^th, 2022.

“An astute lawyer, remarkable debater, orator, a perfectionist, and seasoned politician, Rt Hon Jacob Olanya has successfully run his race as a parliamentarian although expected more of him” the statement read in part.

The President of the Cadres also said that following the acquiring the voters register from Electoral Commission, they are planning to use their structures to start collecting signatures to cause a referendum in different regions of Uganda.

“As per our roadmap, we intend to start in Busoga, then move to Bukedea, Elgon, Sebei, Teso, Karamoja, West Nile, Bunyoro, Kigezi..” the statement reads in part.

The National Resistance Movement cadres under the ‘Transformer Cadres Association’, have written to the Electoral Commission asking for the details of the voter register to enable them to embark on their program to collect signatures to force an amendment to the constitution.

Through their president Adupa Ongwech Felix, the group says that they want to have a change of the current presidential system where all registered adults vote for the president through universal adult suffrage to a parliamentary system where the president will be voted by parliament and district local councils.

Article 74 (3) states that the resolutions or petitions for the purpose of changing the political system shall only be taken only in the fourth year of the term of any parliament.

At the time when they delivered the letter to Electoral Commission (EC)  on the same issue, The Spokesperson EC Paul Bukenya after receiving it said that they had followed the right procedure.

“They have followed the right procedures of writing to the chair and like normally is the practice, we are going to study its content and respond accordingly. The Commission sits every week to deliberate on a number of issues of concern and I hope that will be one of the issues they will attend to,” he said