Museveni of Uganda prepares for "presidency of life" after court decision – East Africa News

A lawyer from a group of Ugandan opposition leaders warned that President Yoweri Museveni, 73, was heading for a "presidency for life" after a court upheld a constitutional amendment removing the presidential age limits.

He would have prevented Museveni, president since 1986, from being re-elected in elections scheduled for 2021.

But a bill removing this limit was introduced in Parliament in September and was enacted in December , sparking protests and an outcry from the opposition that accuses Museveni of a coup.

A group of opposition figures brought judicial review before the judges during a marathon session on Thursday.

"The court established a presidency for life – a man," Ladislaus Rwakafuzi who represented the coalition seeking to have reinstated age limits. "I think our judges did not have the guts to tell the president that it was long enough."

A majority of the Constitutional Court judges, sitting in the remote Mbale town, some 225 kilometers east of the capital Kampala, ruled in favor of lifting the limit of Age for presidential contenders.

Rwakafuzi added that he would consult his clients on the opportunity to appeal the decision.

Kiiza said "we still believe that we can get justice to another level."

But the judges overruled the legislators' efforts to extend their term from five to seven years, which would have postponed the elections to 2023, with a judge describing their offer as "selfish."

Judges also decided that an attempt to reintroduce presidential term limits – abandoned with the reintroduction of multiparty politics in 2005 during the last amendment of the constitution – violation parliamentary procedure. They ruled the proposal invalid, paving the way for a Museveni to reign indefinitely.

Museveni, who took power at the head of a rebel army in 1986, said that leaders who "exceeded" were the root of Africa's problems.

However, while he was standing for a fifth term in 2016, he said it was not the right time for him to leave because he still had work to do.

Deputy Attorney General Mwesigya Rukutana represented the government, stated that he felt "substantially happy" with the judgment.