High Court Quashes Clause in 1995 Constitution Banning Prisoners and Diaspora Ugandans from Voting in General Elections.
The High Court has today ruled that Ugandan prisoners and Ugandans living in diaspora of 18 years of age and above are entitled to vote in the Country’s elections, breaking a decades long tradition that disenfranchised them.
High Court Judge Justice Lydia Mugambe found that being a prisoner or living in the diaspora does not take away one’s citizenship and that the Electoral Commission’s practice since the promulgation of Uganda’s Constitution in 1995 of refusing to register for voting prisoners and Ugandans living in the diaspora is illegal and discriminatory.
"These Ugandans are part of the citizens envisaged in Article 59 [of the Constitution which provides for the right to vote to all Ugandans of 18 years and above]."
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