As it happened: Election petition pre-hearing

1.00pm:   Court adjourned until Saturday

                     Some of the President Museveni's team of lawyers in the Supreme Court 

Court adjourns until Saturday 10.00am local time (March 12), as set by Chief Justice Katureebe, when the applications by parties who want to be 'friends of court' (amicus curiae) will be considered.

Katureebe maintains that hearing of Amama Mbabazi's election petition starts on Monday 14.

As mentioned earlier, some NGOs have already applied to be 'friend of court'.

Meanwhile, Mbabazi's lead counsel says that in the interest of time, they are willing to accept soft copies of tally sheets per polling station, to which the Electoral Commission lawyer responds that if Mbabazi's legal team want copies of tally sheets from all districts, then they should "be prepared to wait".

The former Prime Minister's counsel says that the petitioner seeks to compare the tally sheets on the Electoral Commission website with the district tally sheets.

The Electoral Commission lawyer asks for time to consult his client and write back today on the matter of the tally sheets that Mbabazi's legal team seek.

The Chief Justice  tells Mbabazi's lawyers to "file your affidavits today and serve them by close of business today".

12.44pm:   'Sufficient'

The Chief Justice says the issues as agreed by both parties are sufficient. Court endorses issues agreed upon by both sides. He adds that the issues raised by Counsel Mohamed Mbabazi are "well covered" in the issues agreed upon by both parties.

 
On the request for more time by Mbabazi's team, Katureebe says: "I don't have the time. The time has been set by the Constitution. We have barely 20 days."

12.35pm:   'Already covered by law'

Mbabazi's lead counsel raises issues on which parties failed to agree and seeks the Supreme Court's guidance. On his part, Rukutana says they never agreed to issues including whether the Electoral Commission had a voters' register because they are "superfluous".

In response, Chief Justice Bart Katureebe says some of the issues over which Mbabazi's lawyer seeks guidance are already covered by the law.

"The issues we proposed are fundamental issues arising from breaches of the law," responds Mbabazi's counsel.

12.25pm:   Three agreed facts

Now back to the main subject . . .

Deputy Attorney General Rukutana presented three agreed facts:

1. On February 18, second respondent, the Electoral Commission, conducted presidential elections

2. Two days later, on February 20, first respondent, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, was declared the president with 5, 617,503 votes (60.75%).

3: The same day, on February 20, petitioner Amama Mbabazi was declared to have polled 132,574 votes (1.43%) of valid votes cast.

 Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana (left) and Enos Tumusiime

12.15pm:   Up in flames

Allow me to digress a bit . . .

Meanwhile, a car belonging to the ministry of finance caught fire near the Electoral Commission headquarters along Jinja road this morning.

Witnesses said they saw smoke billowing from the front of the vehicle as woman stormed out of the parked car. Firefighters from the Fire Brigade were called and they extinguished the fire.

 

 

 

12.10pm:   Court resumes

We are back in court after a 40-something-minute break.

To start us off, deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana is back on the mic and he is presenting issues and facts of agreement and contention. And one of the issues he raises is whether the third respondent (the Attorney General) is properly joined as a party to the petition by Mbabazi.

11.10am:   Court recess

Court goes into recess and is set to resume at 12pm local time as the lawyers given time to hold inter-party consultations on key issues.

Earlier, Chief Justice Katureebe said that if illegal detentions are indeed taking place, relevant bodies should investigate.

11.00am:   The affidavits

Chief Justice Bart Katureebe asks the Mbabazi team: "Where are these affidavits and why haven't they been submitted as directed?"

"I'm surprised that affidavits were not served Monday. I instructed one of my colleagues to serve them," responds one of the petitioner's lawyers.

Meanwhile, deputy AG Rukutana responds to lawyer Basalirwa's earlier comments that witnesses were detained and later released. He says neither the Kireka nor Jinja lock-up registers show entries of said witnesses, and he maintains that the claims of witness arrests are false.

10.50am:   'We are serious'

Another of Mbabazi's lawyers, Michael Akampulira, talks of how "serious" they are about the petition in - direct response to deputy Attorney General Rukutana's earlier comments that the former Prime Minister's lawyres are unserious.

Akampulira tells court that they lost important documents and computers vital to the petition in the Tuesday night break-ins.

"We spent entire day [Wednesday] trying to reassemble evidence. It's unfortunate that some claim raids were stage managed," he says."When we wrote to our colleagues and the court about the raids, we were being courteous."

10.45am:   'Witnesses released'

Mbabazi's lawyer Asuman Basalirwa tells court he has been in touch with Attorney General Frederick Ruhindi over the said detention of witnesses.

"We are grateful that the Attorney General followed up on the issue of witness detention and on Tuesday, the witnesses were released," he says.

Mbabazi's lawyer says that before the said witnesses were set free, they were taken from Kireka to Jinja and that their statements have been recorded.

10.35am:   Amended petition

The lawyer of first respondent President-elect Yoweri Museveni, Didas Nkurunziza, says his team have not yet been served with affidavits in light of the amended election petition by Amama Mbabazi.

10.20am:   Break-ins a 'hoax'?

Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana says claims that witnesses were arrested are "lies", and cites Police chief Gen. Kale Kayihura's letter denying the allegations. He also tells court that it would not surprise him if the "alleged break-ins" of Tuesday night were a "hoax intended to raise sympathy or buy time".

He therefore asks court to reprimand Mbabazi's lawyers for what he calls "unprofessional conduct".

Unknown people on Tuesday night broke into offices of lawyers representing former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi in the election petition seeking to nullify President Yoweri Museveni's victory in the February 18 polls.

10.10am:   Election petition pre-hearing under way

The nine Supreme Court justices walked into the court room a little while ago and after the anthems were sung, the session got under way.