If Referendum is null and void, what now?
SIR— There seems to be, in my view, two schools of thought in the controversy over the recent declaration of the 2000 Referendum Act as null and void.
SIR— There seems to be, in my view, two schools of thought in the controversy over the recent declaration of the 2000 Referendum Act as null and void.
One school argues that since the Act was declared of null effect, all acts done by the State arising from the void Act are also null and void, as if they were never done or existed.
The other school holds that only a few things of no effect, but the Office of the President, Parliament and the Judiciary are still in place.
I belong to the first. I take a strong view that once an Act is declared null and void, normally Parliament would enact a law with retrospective effect in order to validate those otherwise illegal acts. I remember in 1966 when Milton Obote abrogated the 1962 Constitution, a former member of the then Buganda Lukiiko went to court and challenged the 1966 pigeon-hole Constitution.
Before the judges proceeded, they, on their own will, asked whether there was an effective Government for them to act as judges to entertain the petition.
They came to the conclusion that as there was a successful coup d’etat, and those who carried it out established law, order and tranquility, there was a de facto Government. Hence, they were empowered to sit as judges and hear the petition.
In our case, the judges ruling appears to show that since 2001, there has been no President, no Parliament, no Judiciary, as a result of the said annulment. In fact, one may ask whether the Court of Appeal itself was properly constituted in order to adjudicate on the matter since courts cannot function in a vacuum where there is no Government.
If my view is correct, one wonders whether the Supreme Court will properly entertain the appeal without first resorting to the method of the High Court in 1966.
I conclude that the recent ruling gives President Yoweri Museveni a clean card, and in case the Government withdraws the appeal and bends to the opposition’s demand that he respects the decision of the Constitutional Court, he may be forced to fall back to the 2000 position and organise fresh elections from LCs to president.
He will be free to stand as president for the second term as the purported second term is “null and voidâ€.
Kulumba-Kiingi
Kampala
One school argues that since the Act was declared of null effect, all acts done by the State arising from the void Act are also null and void, as if they were never done or existed.
The other school holds that only a few things of no effect, but the Office of the President, Parliament and the Judiciary are still in place.
I belong to the first. I take a strong view that once an Act is declared null and void, normally Parliament would enact a law with retrospective effect in order to validate those otherwise illegal acts. I remember in 1966 when Milton Obote abrogated the 1962 Constitution, a former member of the then Buganda Lukiiko went to court and challenged the 1966 pigeon-hole Constitution.
Before the judges proceeded, they, on their own will, asked whether there was an effective Government for them to act as judges to entertain the petition.
They came to the conclusion that as there was a successful coup d’etat, and those who carried it out established law, order and tranquility, there was a de facto Government. Hence, they were empowered to sit as judges and hear the petition.
In our case, the judges ruling appears to show that since 2001, there has been no President, no Parliament, no Judiciary, as a result of the said annulment. In fact, one may ask whether the Court of Appeal itself was properly constituted in order to adjudicate on the matter since courts cannot function in a vacuum where there is no Government.
If my view is correct, one wonders whether the Supreme Court will properly entertain the appeal without first resorting to the method of the High Court in 1966.
I conclude that the recent ruling gives President Yoweri Museveni a clean card, and in case the Government withdraws the appeal and bends to the opposition’s demand that he respects the decision of the Constitutional Court, he may be forced to fall back to the 2000 position and organise fresh elections from LCs to president.
He will be free to stand as president for the second term as the purported second term is “null and voidâ€.
Kulumba-Kiingi
Kampala