All is set for Supreme Court to pass its verdict

Deputy AG Mwesigwa Rukutana submits to the panel of judges. Photo by Dominic Bukenya. 

By Anthony Wesaka, Isaac Imaka & Ivan Okuda
Posted 


Thursday, March 31 

2016 at 

10:23

The cameras are set, the lawyers for both the petitioner (Mr Amama Mbabazi) and those of the respondents (President Museveni, EC and AG) have taken their respective seats and the situation is tense. What is missing are the nine justices led by the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe to walk into the fully packed courtroom and give their summary verdict on whether to uphold President Museveni’s victory or annul it and order for fresh elections..

Mr Mbabazi, one of the losers in the February 18 general elections is seeking to overturn President Museveni’s victory on grounds of bribery and noncompliance of the electoral laws on the side of the EC including late delivery of voting materials in the districts of Kampala and Wakiso.
Currently, security in and outside the premises of the court is tighten with limited accesses to the courtroom. Journalists who intended to cover this landmark judgment had to be first accredited as early as 7:30am before accessing the highest court in the land.  Chief Justice was the first judge to arrive at the Kololo-based court at about 8am in readiness of reading the much awaited judgment.

Some of the notable big political shots that have already taken their seats to be part of the land mark ruling include, DP President General Norbert Mao, Minister for Presidency and KCCA Frank Tumwebaze, and Mike Sebalu, the then spokesperson of Museveni campaign team.

Other big shots present include; EC chairperson Eng. Badru Kiggundu who organized the elections that are now being challenged and his Secretary Sam Rwakoojo.

The justices read their judgment as promised about a week ago that they would read the judgment today.

Article 104 (5) of the constitution, gives the Supreme Court three options to base on while deciding a presidential election petition.

The first option that the court can go with this morning is to dismiss Mr Mbabazi’s petition and this will mean that President Museveni was validly elected president.

The second option is to declare any of the eight former presidential candidates as having been validly elected.

The last option that the Supreme Court justices have is to annul the election of President Museveni and order for fresh elections that should be conducted within 20 days from today.

Besides seeking nullification of the incumbent’s victory, Mr Mbabazi in his amended petition, wants court to issue an order for a vote recount in 45 districts including Kampala and Wakiso.

He contends that the vote recount is necessary in those mentioned districts to determine the substantial effect of the alleged mal practices and non compliance on the part of the EC.

On March 20 this year, the EC that is mandated to organize elections in the country, declared President Museveni the winner of the February 18 elections with 60.7 per cent of the total votes cast, he was followed by FDC’s Kizza Besigye with 35 percent and Mr Mbabazi came distant third with  1.39 percent.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com