With the Uganda presidential elections just hours away, Makerere University has released a tight elections roadmap schedule for aspiring student leaders following the formation of a caretaker government.
According to a communique pinned up on various noticeboards around the university, all aspiring candidates for the position of guild president are expected to pick forms starting on 22 February but not later than 4 p.m. the following day.
Financially constrained aspirants may have to helplessly look on as their dreams for guild presidency perish at the altar of the non-refundable Ugx 200,000/= that they are required to part with as nomination fees. The guild aspirants are expected to go with the monies as they pick nomination forms.
In addition, an aspirant is required to have a minimum CGPA of 2.8 and must not have gotten a single retake at any one time in the course they are currently pursuing.
Fully nominated guild aspirants will then have only two weeks of campaigning during which they are expected to have met the over 40,000 students at the Ivory Tower. The first rally will be held on 25 February at Mary Stuart hall and the last, main rally will be at the freedom square on 10 March. Voting will take place the following day.
However, the CGPA requirement has been a particularly controversial issue, with a few feathers ruffled along the way in the process of its approval as an amendment to the guild Constitution.
The controversy started last semester when a constitutional review comission headed by Wankandya Simon Peter as the then Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs recommended a new clause in the students guild Constitution requiring of any guild presidential aspirant a CGPA of 3.0. This amendment was later debated and passed by the GRC house.
However, the amendment immediately caused an uproar among sections of students who felt it was an unjustifiable curtailment of their right to contest for leadership positions.
Nevertheless, in fulfillment of Art. 16 (1)(c) of the Guild Constitution, the amendment was communicated to the University Council for approval. Rather than approve the clause or send it back to the GRCs for further review, the University Council apparently usurped the GRC’s powers by relaxing the rather stringent CGPA requirement to 2.8, something that under the guild constitution should have been done by the GRC house.
Whatever the situation may be, this year’s guild race promises to be a riveting one. With nomination just days away, a number of aspirants have expressed their intentions already. Of these, Bazil Mwotta, an Education student, and Ssembogga Roy, a medical student who doubles as the outgoing Electoral Commission chairman, appear to be in the lead.
If social media popularity among the MAK students’ circles is anything to go by, Ssembogga seems to be having a slight lead over Bazil.
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