Court releases full poll petition ruling

KAMPALA - Justice Jotham Tumwesigye is reading the full verdict on the February presidential election petition at the Supreme Court in Kampala.

With Chief Justice Bart Katureebe and Justice Esther Kisaakye out of the country, Tumwesigye and six other justices are delivering the detailed ruling inside a full courtroom of the parties' lawyers, the press and members of the public.

The release of the final ruling comes five months after a panel of nine Supreme Court justices, led by Katureebe, dismissed former presidential candidate, John Patrick Amama Mbabazi's election petition challenging President Yoweri Museveni's victory.

Here are some early pictures from the Supreme Court on Friday . . .

Electoral Commission spokesperson Jotham Taremwa walks into the courtroom.

By 9.00 local time Friday, most of the seats inside the courtroom were still empty, with only a handful occupied as people trickled in.

Gradually, the room started to fill and some of the early birds were the lawyers representing the the parties involved. And particularly, as pictured above, were President Yoweri Museveni's (respondent) lawyers already in their seats waiting to receive the detailed election petition.

Unlike the decisions on previous two election petitions where justices ruled on a majority vote, the March 31 ruling was a unanimous decision from the nine judges: Katureebe, Stella Arach Amoko, Ruby Opio Aweri, Lillian Tibatemwa, Esther Kisaakye, Jotham Tumwesigye, Eldad Mwangusya, Faith Mwondha and Augustine Nshimye.

In the February 18 presidential eletion results announced by the Electoral Commission (EC) on February 20, Mbabazi came a distant third with 132,574 which accounted for 1.43% of the total votes cast.

His other co-contenders Abed Bwanika, Venansius Baryamureeba, Benon Buta Biraaro, Maureen Faith Kyalya, Joseph Mabirizi and Kizza Besigye polled 86,075 (0.93%),51,086 (0.55%), 24,675. (0.27%), 40,598 (0.44%), 23,762 (0.26%) and 3,270,290 (35.37%), respectively, while Museveni garnered 5,617,503 votes (60.75%) to claim victory.

Mbabazi, not content with the results, decided to petition court and asked for a vote recount in 45 districts. The petition was against Museveni, EC and the Attorney General (AG).

Meanwhile. inside the courtroom, the gallery is only starting to fill up with members of the public.

The lawyers of the three parties are already in court.

Former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi claimed that the election was conducted without compliance with the provisions and the principles of the Presidential Elections Act, 2000; the Electoral Commissions Act, 1997 and the 1995 Constitution and that this affected the result of the election in a substantial manner.

He accused Museveni of several electoral offences and illegal practices including voter bribery, intimidation and use of state resources and his office to disrupt his competitor's rallies.


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