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Alliance for Finance Monitoring and Others v Attorney General and Another (Constitutional Petition No. 4 of 2024)

Constitutional Court · [2025] UGCC 19 · 2025 Petition Dismissed ✦ AI-generated summary ↓ Download
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Constitutional petition under article 137(3) of the Constitution challenging the constitutionality of statutory provisions and acts relating to parliamentary representation
Decision
Petition dismissed in its entirety with each party bearing its own costs

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Holding

The Constitutional Court dismissed the petition. The defence of res judicata failed because the parties differed from the earlier Odonga case and the scope of controversy was wider. On the merits, the Court held that since a city is equivalent to a district under section 4 of the Local Governments Act, section 8(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act providing for city women representatives is consistent with article 78(1)(b) and harmonises the Constitution. Women's representation is a stand-alone category, not a special interest group. Municipalities may lawfully be prescribed and demarcated as constituencies under article 63. Parliament may prescribe constituencies at any time; the Electoral Commission's census-linked review under article 63(5) is distinct and was not shown to have been breached.

Facts

The petitioners, civil-society organisations and an individual, challenged statutory provisions and acts concerning parliamentary representation. They contended that section 8(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act created a seat for a city woman representative not provided for by article 78(1)(b) of the Constitution, which reserves a woman representative for every district only. In April 2020 Parliament created 15 new cities; women's seats followed. The petitioners also argued that municipalities, created as local administrative units under article 179 and the Local Governments Act, were unlawfully treated as parliamentary constituencies, and that 20 constituencies were created out of cities in 2020 more than twelve months after the 2016 census without proper demarcation. The respondents maintained that a city is equivalent to a district under the Local Governments Act, that municipalities were saved as constituencies under article 294 and the Parliamentary Elections (Interim Provisions) Statute, and that Parliament may prescribe constituencies independently of any census.

Issues

  1. Whether the petition raises issues for constitutional interpretation tenable before the Constitutional Court.
  2. Whether section 8(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act, which creates a seat for a city woman representative not provided for by the Constitution, is unconstitutional and inconsistent with articles 1, 2, 8A and 78(1)(b) of the Constitution.
  3. Whether the occupation of Parliament by city women representatives under the category of special interest group representation is unconstitutional and inconsistent with articles 1, 8A and 78(1)(b) of the Constitution.
  4. Whether the creation of parliamentary seats for Members of Parliament representing municipalities, which are local governments not envisaged as part of the composition of Parliament, is inconsistent with articles 1, 8A, 59, 63, 176, 181(3) and 207 of the Constitution.
  5. Whether the creation of 20 more constituencies out of the cities by Parliament and the Electoral Commission in 2020, more than 12 months after publication of the national population census, is inconsistent with article 63(3)(5)(7) of the Constitution.
  6. Whether the petitioners are entitled to any remedies.

Orders

  • The petition is dismissed.
  • Each party shall bear its own costs of the proceedings.

Key headnotes

Constitutional Law — Constitutional Interpretation — Jurisdiction under Article 137(3) — Disclosure of a Cause of Action
A petition invokes the Constitutional Court's interpretive jurisdiction where it identifies the impugned law, act or omission and the specific constitutional provisions alleged to be contravened, and prays for a declaration; it is not enough merely to allege that a constitutional provision has been violated.
Civil Procedure — Res Judicata — Requirement of Identity of Parties
A plea of res judicata fails where the parties to the earlier and later proceedings are not the same, even if a nearly identical controversy was litigated, identity of parties being an essential component of the doctrine under section 7 of the Civil Procedure Act.
Electoral Law — Parliamentary Representation — City Women Representatives — City Equivalent to District
Because a city is by section 4 of the Local Governments Act the equivalent of a district, the constitutional entitlement of a district to a woman representative in Parliament under article 78(1)(b) extends to a city, so section 8(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act providing for city women representatives is constitutional and harmonises rather than contravenes the Constitution.
Electoral Law — Composition of Parliament — Women's Representation Distinct from Special Interest Groups
Women's representation under article 78(1)(b) is a stand-alone category in the composition of Parliament and is not part of the special interest group representation under article 78(1)(c), which comprises representatives of the army, workers, youth and persons with disabilities.
Constitutional Law — Local Government — Municipalities Prescribed and Demarcated as Constituencies
A local government unit such as a municipality may lawfully be prescribed by Parliament and demarcated by the Electoral Commission as a constituency under article 63, and there is no constitutional bar to such a unit doubling as a parliamentary constituency where the qualifying parameters are met.
Electoral Law — Article 63 — Prescription by Parliament and Demarcation by the Electoral Commission as Distinct Functions
Article 63(1) confers on Parliament the function of prescribing the number of constituencies, while article 63(2) confers on the Electoral Commission the distinct function of demarcating those constituencies; the two roles are separate and must not be conflated.
Electoral Law — Article 63(5) — Census-Linked Review Distinct from Parliament's Power to Prescribe
Parliament may prescribe constituencies at any time independently of a population census, while the Electoral Commission's mandate to review the division of Uganda into constituencies within twelve months of census publication under article 63(5) is invoked only by a census; creating constituencies long after a census does not contravene article 63(5).

Legislation cited (17)

  • Parliamentary Elections Act s.8(1)
  • Parliamentary Elections Act s.8(2)
  • Parliamentary Elections Act s.1(1)
  • Parliamentary Elections Act s.101(2)
  • Civil Procedure Act s.7
  • Local Governments Act s.3
  • Local Governments Act s.4
  • Local Governments Act s.7
  • Local Governments Act s.7(2A)
  • Electoral Commissions Act s.11
  • Parliamentary Elections (Interim Provisions) Statute 1996, First Schedule
  • Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 art.137(3)
  • Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 art.78(1)(b)
  • Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 art.78(1)(c)
  • Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 art.63
  • Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 art.179
  • Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 art.294

Cases cited (17)

  • [2017] UGCC 4
  • Uganda v Godfrey Onesi Obel (Constitutional Reference No. 24 of 2011)
  • [2017] UGSC 11
  • [2007] UGSC 24
  • [1999] UGSC 7
  • [2004] UGSC 49
  • The Attorney General of Tanzania v Rev. Christopher Mtikila (2010) EA 13
  • Okello Okello John Livingstone & 6 Others v Attorney General & Another (Constitutional Petition No. 1 of 2005)
  • South Dakota v South Carolina 192 USA 268, 1940
  • Attorney General v Major General Tinyefuza (Constitutional Appeal No. 1 of 1997)
  • [2020] UGCC 1
  • [1999] UGSC 2
  • [2022] UGCC 13
  • [2003] UGSC 3
  • Manshukhlal & Anor v Attorney General & Another (Civil Appeal No. 20 of 2002)
  • Cheborion Barishaki v Attorney General (Constitutional Petition No. 4 of 2006)
  • [2019] UGCC 11
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