{"id":357236,"date":"2017-09-27T06:56:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T06:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=357236"},"modified":"2017-11-10T11:10:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:10:31","slug":"uganda-mps-brawl-during-presidential-age-limit-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=357236","title":{"rendered":"Uganda MPs brawl during presidential age-limit debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Chaotic scenes broke out in Uganda&#8217;s parliament as MPs debated the contentious removal of the presidential age limit.<\/p>\n<p>Tempers flared and lawmakers were filmed brawling after it was alleged an MP had brought a gun into the chamber.<\/p>\n<p>The speaker ordered a search but no gun was found, local media reported.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/39\/02\/390241\/1024x576_bonus-UG1.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The age-limit issue is controversial because long-standing President Yoweri Museveni is 73 years old and the limit for re-election is capped at 75.<\/p>\n<p>President Museveni has been in power since 1986 and democratically elected as president since 1996.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/39\/02\/390241\/1024x576_bonus-UG2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But the current constitutional age limit would prevent him from standing for a sixth term in the 2021 elections.<\/p>\n<p>His governing party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), has been involved in a contentious bill to revise the country&#8217;s constitution.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/39\/02\/390241\/1024x576_bonus-UG3.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A previous two-term limit was scrapped in 2005 to allow President Museveni to stand for a third term.<\/p>\n<p>The scuffles broke out on Tuesday during a plenary session after the parliament speaker allowed the constitutional amendment to be presented to MPs.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/39\/02\/390241\/1024x576_bonus-UG5.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Local media\u00a0reported\u00a0that it took 20 minutes for the commotion to calm down.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, police had fired tear gas at some protesters in the capital Kampala before the debate began.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/39\/02\/390241\/1024x576_bonus-UG6.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A leading opposition figure was also reportedly arrested trying to mobilise protesters, a police spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, parliament had to be adjourned after opposition MPs chanted, heckled and whistled over the age-limit issue.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chaotic scenes broke out in Uganda&#8217;s parliament as MPs debated the contentious removal of the presidential age limit. Tempers flared and lawmakers were filmed brawling after it was alleged an MP had brought a gun into the chamber. The speaker ordered a search but no gun was found, local media reported. The age-limit issue is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[457,11407],"class_list":["post-357236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-uganda","tag-uganda-parliament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}