The Chairperson of the Elders Forum, Justice James Manage Ogoola has challenged the youths to think beyond affirmative action as the only way of achieving political representation in elective positions.
The current laws of the land provide for five representative positions for the youths in Parliament distributed among the different regions.
Ogoola while presenting a keynote speech at a youth dialogue under the theme; Youth Legislative Agenda: Bridging the gap between Parliament and Young people; said that like affirmative action elsewhere in the world, there comes a time when it needs to be phased out.
“I was challenging the youth to realize that there is going to come a time when their special status begins to go away, after all they make up 80 percent of the population now,” Ogoola noted.
“It is almost beginning to be like the 20 percent are the special group rather than the 80 percent. I challenge them to think about the time out of the special representation.”
Justice Ogoola addressing youth in Bugolobi
Speaking at the event however, the Interparty Youth Platform Chairperson and UPC Youth leader, Brenda Atim suggested for the youth age bracket to be expanded from 30.
“The youth MPs to a greater extent have not helped us because they only serve for one term,” Atim noted.
She added that most MPs abandon the youth who elect them into power and begin reaching out to other constituencies to run in in the next term.
On whether the country still needs affirmative action, Atim was positive.
“We still need affirmative action. However, I propose expansion of the age bracket from 30 to 35.
“This is because by 31 years, the person is already out of the youthful bracket but once the bar is raised to 35, someone will be forced to return to the Electoral College to seek re-election for a second term and will be more accountable to the young people who elect them.”