MPs want African presidents to rule without term limits

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame (left), Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni (center) and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe

A section of African legislators want presidential term limits scrapped from the continent's constitutions.

A joint Parliamentary Assembly of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) and European Union parliamentary session yesterday failed to impose presidential term limits among the member states.

Presidential term limits are already in place in a number of countries including Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria, among others, and are viewed as a key element for democracy.

However, a number of African, Caribbean and pacific countries opposed the idea of tying term limits to development aid.

Others called for the scrapping of presidential term limits altogether.

Deputy Speaker of Uganda's parliament, Jacob Oulanyah called for the total abandonment of the term limit debate, saying it undermined the will of the people during polls.

"It is about the power of the people, the will of the people, we cannot pass something that will undermine the will of the people to choose their leaders," Oulanyah said.

Other countries that opposed to the motion on term limits included Mali and Burundi.

A number of member states engaged in the hotly contested debate, which saw tempers rise on the floor of the 44th ACP-EU joint parliamentary Assembly held yesterday at Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), Nairobi.

SUSPENDED AID

The debate was partly sparked off by the decision by the European Union early this year to suspend direct financial support for Burundi, whose President, Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third term in April 2015 sparked chaos.

Nkurunziza's opponents opposed his decision, saying it violated the constitution, which currently limits presidential tenure to two five-year terms.

EU slammed sanctions on Burundi, accusing authorities there of not doing enough to find a political solution to the resulting conflict that has so far cost more than 400 lives.

Burundi, which appeared to have been aggrieved by the EU's decision bitterly contested the motion.

"Why in the context of the ACP-EU partnership, does the EU seek to impose its own political opinions on ACP countries, thus riding roughshod over the sovereignty of those countries," asked Inama Nkenguzamateka of Burundi.

Members of Parliament drawn from the 79 ACP member states and the 28 from the European Union however backed term limits and respecting them.

"Generally Africa's institutions and electoral commissions are not sufficiently independent to vote out undesirable leaders, elections are not always fair, polls are often characterised by noticeable fraud and irregularities," said Tulia Ackson of Tanzania.