{"id":25815,"date":"2016-06-03T23:30:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T23:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/uganda-clergy-push-for-electoral-reforms\/"},"modified":"2016-06-03T23:30:18","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T23:30:18","slug":"uganda-clergy-push-for-electoral-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/uganda-clergy-push-for-electoral-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda:Clergy push for electoral reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Kampala. Religious leaders have thrown their weight behind the calls for electoral reforms despite President Museveni saying Uganda does not need such reforms because it is one of the highly democratic countries in Africa.}<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assembly [Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC)] noted that elections constitute the building of democratic governance, which is essential for peace and sustainable development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assembly expresses concern about the minimal nature of constitutional and electoral reforms that were undertaken in the run-up to the general election held in 2016,\u201d the UJCC executive secretary, Rev Fr Dr Silvester Arinaitwe Rwomukubwe, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn that regard, the assembly asked UJCC secretariat to continue to engage the government, political parties and all other stakeholders on the issues of comprehensive electoral reforms based on adequate consultation involving all stakeholders, including the civil society fraternity,\u201d Rev Fr Rwomukubwe added.<\/p>\n

He was addressing the press at Jevine Hotel during the closing of the UJCC annual meeting on Thursday. It was attended by the Council Chairperson and Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Stanley Ntagali, Co-chairperson Dr Cyprian Kizito Lwanga and a representative of Kampala Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga and Fr Stephen Lunagula. Government has ignored repeated recommendations by civil society, the opposition and other organisations to appoint an independent electoral commission to manage national elections. ]<\/p>\n

The religious leaders meeting under the theme \u2018\u2018striving for greatness through servanthood (Mathew 23.11)\u201d also condemned sex education in schools, abuse of alcohol and called for sensitisation of the public on the proposed Islamic banking.
\n\u201cWe are making all these recommendations in good faith. The Church believes in dialogue and not confrontation,\u201d ArchBishop Kizito Lwanga said.
\nArchbishop Ntagali called for dialogue between the ruling National Resistance Movement party and the opposition parties.<\/p>\n

The opposition disputed the results of the February 18 elections, which President Museveni who won with 60 per cent of the vote. The opposition said the elections were rigged in favour of Museveni, a claim the NRM denies.
\nFormer presidential candidate Kizza Besigye of FDC took the lead in disputing the elections and insisted he won the elections with 52 per cent with Mr Museveni receiving 45 per cent. He is now in Luzira prison on treason charges following a video posted on social media in which he appears to be swearing in as the new president of Uganda.<\/p>\n

{{The reforms
\n}}<\/p>\n

{{Some of the electoral reforms demanded by the Opposition include:}}<\/p>\n

\u2022The Opposition demanded that an independent Electoral commission appointed by the Judicial Service Commission and approved by Parliament be instituted.
\n\u2022Presidential term limits be reinstated in the Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u2022Putting an end to the use of military and other security agencies in elections.<\/p>\n

\u2022They demanded that the army be removed from Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u2022Equitable access to both private and public media during campaigns<\/p>\n

\u2022Provide for a running mate for the President<\/p>\n

\u2022Voters should be empowered to challenge the presidential result.<\/p>\n

\u2022Increase time given to challenge the presidential elections from 10 to 21 days.<\/p>\n

\u2022Supreme Court delivering the judgment after the elections be revisited.<\/p>\n

\"Archbishop<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Kampala. Religious leaders have thrown their weight behind the calls for electoral reforms despite President Museveni saying Uganda does not need such reforms because it is one of the highly democratic countries in Africa.} \u201cThe assembly [Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC)] noted that elections constitute the building of democratic governance, which is essential for peace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25815"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25815"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}