Uganda Gets One of The Youngest Member of Parliament in The World

A 19 year old girl was last week elected to the Ugandan Parliament with an overwhelming majority. Proscovia Alengot Oromait is by far the youngest legislator the Ugandan Parliament has ever seen in the  august House. Given that  the normal age in which people around the world start to engage in politics is on average 30 and above, Proscovia  could be one of the youngest parliamentarians in the  whole world today.

She was declared winner of the Usuk Constituency in Eastern Uganda by the  Electoral  Commission with a majority of 11,059 votes,  beating 9 mature, veteran  politicians with a very big margin.  Honorable Proscovia Alengot Oromait replaces her late father who died two months ago. Many believe her fortunes came largely out of sympathy votes from the electorate, given that her father was a very popular politician.

Proscovia  Alengot looks visibly young and childish, but she is determined to serve her people just as well as her late father did. She was due to join University but the Ruling NRM part stalwarts identified her as one who could spark off emotions of sympathy and bring success to the party. Many commentators saw the resort to a 19 year old girl by the ruling party as an act of political desperation given that they had been losing a string of bye-elections held in recent times.

 According to the Guinness records, the world’s youngest known Parliamentarian ever has been  MP Anton Abele. He got elected to the Swedish Parliament at the age of 18 for his activism against street violence. The other was a 19 year old Canadian, Luc Dusseault and we can say, Uganda’s Proscovia  Alengot Oromait has joined the world club of the youngest Parliamentarians.