Daily Monitor
Wednesday February 10 2021
A photomontage of Mr Robert Kyagulanyi (right) and his lawyers led by Busiro County East MP Medard Sseggona (seated, left) consulting during the hearing of an application by the former presidential candidate seeking to amend an earlier poll petition at the Supreme Court in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO/ABUBAKER LUBOWA
Summary
Dismissed: Supreme Court judges say National Unity Platform leader Robert Kyagulanyi’s application to amend the poll petition and include new grounds did not have new information.
Court ruled that the issues Mr Kyagulanyi’s team intended to add to the petition had already been included in the original petition.
Bobi Wine amends election petition
February 8, 2021 Robert Kyagulanyi
National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine has amended the election petition challenging the outcome of the just-concluded presidential race.
According to results released by the Electoral Commission, Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni, the incumbent and candidate of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, a 58 per cent majority, against Kyagulanyi s score of 35 per cent in a race that attracted 11 candidates. But in the amended petition filed in the Supreme court, Kyagulanyi contends that as an incumbent, Museveni was ineligible to take part in the January 14, presidential election. Kyagulanyi states Museveni was not qualified for election as president while in the office of the Head of State, Head of Government, Commander in Chief and chairperson of the National Security Council.
But the National Unity Platform (NUP) lawyers led by
Antony Wameli have claimed that Museveni, the president-elect of making it difficult to serve him with the petition with just a few hours for the deadline to elapse.
Wameli told the press on Tuesday, February 2 that he had looked for Museveni in three places including National Resistance Movement (NRM) head offices in Kampala, the party legal offices, and then Nakasero State Lodge where Museveni was expected to be but they could not find him.
Reports say Bobi Wine’s lawyers have only one option of moving to Entebbe statehouse to look for the president since the law demands that they should serve him within two days from the day of filing the petition.
Museveni was declared the winner with 5,851,037 votes representing 58.64 per cent against Kyagulanyi’s 3,475,298 votes representing 34.85 per cent as provisional results, which was on January 28 finally updated to 6,042,898 votes for Museveni representing 58.38 per cent and 3,631,437 votes for Kyagulanyi representing 35 per cent of the total valid votes cast.
But Kyagulanyi disputed the results, hence petitioning the Supreme court seeking to nullify Museveni’s victory. Kyagulanyi argued that the election process was not free and fair as it was characterized by a number of irregularities like fraud, voter bribery, intimidation, violence that resulted into loss of lives, arrests among others.
However, the copy of the said petition was supposed to be served to Museveni to enable him, being jointly sued with the Electoral Commission and the Attorney General, to look at the allegations raised against him and put in a defense before the case can be fixed for hearing.