Uganda bans gay marriage

2005-09-29 21:53

Kampala - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed into law constitutional amendments allowing him to stand for re-election next year and banning gay marriage in the East African nation, an official said on Thursday.

With little fanfare, Museveni on Monday signed off on a bill containing a package of amendments that was approved by parliament in August over strenuous opposition objections to the repeal of presidential term limits, he said.

"The president assented to the Constitutional Amendment Bill making it an Act of Parliament and a law of Uganda," said Bernard Eceru, a parliament spokesperson.

The bill contains a number of constitutional amendments including the abolition of term limits and the proscription against same-sex marriage as well as the designation of Swahili as Uganda's second official language.

Despite a brief outcry over the gay marriage ban, the repeal of term limits was the most contentious part of the bill with opposition lawmakers accusing the president of wanting to remain in office for life.

Term limits abolished

The country's 1995 constitution had restricted a president to two five-year terms but allies of Museveni, who came to power in 1986 coup d'etat before being elected twice, argued the limitation was undemocratic.

Without the change, Museveni would have been forced to step down when his current, second-elected term ends in March 2006.

Uganda's fractured opposition, which contains several ex-members of Museveni's government who protested the change, has accused the president of trying to disguise dictatorial ambitions behind ostensible political reform.

In conjunction with the abolition of term limits, Museveni, who has been criticised by donors for the slow pace of democratisation, earlier this year championed the repeal of a 20-year ban on political parties that he imposed on seizing power.

Same-sex marriages banned

Ugandans voted to restore political pluralism in a July 28 referendum that was marked by extremely low turnout amid an opposition boycott call.

Museveni's signature on the constitutional amendments bill also enshrines into law a ban on same-sex marriage that has been condemned by rights groups.

The amendment says "marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman" and specifies that "it is unlawful for same-sex couples to marry".

Criminal penalties for offenders are not included but are to be laid out in revisions to the Ugandan penal code at a later date.

In July, New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned plans to put the ban into the constitution, decrying it as a move to institutionalise prejudice.

It noted that homosexual relations are already criminalised in Uganda under a sodomy law inherited from British colonial rule.

- AFP