Since political analysts have been urging that the new tabled electoral reforms that comprise of the Presidential Elections Amendment Bill 2019 and the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Bill carry a number of clauses that are assumed to target Bobi Wine’s People Power Movement and the opposition at large, Joel Ssenyonyi has termed the new amendments as ‘electoral jokes.’
“You have to be naive not to realize that they’re targeting People Power,” said Ssenyonyi on NTV’s Fourth Estate Show.
According to Ssenyonyi, the reforms have exposed President Museveni as a big time coward. He said this is because some of the tabled amendments are ridiculous.
“Saying journalists and individual cameras are not to be allowed within the voting area and the declaration of results has to be made in presence of only five people is a move to cater for their usual vote rigging,” Ssenyonyi said.
The former news anchor also labeled the new bill unconstitutional. He thinks that it discourages freedom of association by prohibiting independents not to work with political parties.
Attorney General William Byaruhanga last week tabled the much awaited electoral reforms before parliament containing five bills. In the proposed draft bills government wants independent presidential candidates not to form alliances with any registered political party, journalists and individual cameras not to be allowed within the voting area, political parties not to have any ties with pressure groups and the declaration of results to only be made to five people.
It is these that Ssenyonyi has labeled as jokes.