AG Appeals Party Ruling

Jan 19, 2003

THE Attorney General (AG) has appealed against the Constitutional Court’s ruling in which it suspended the registration of political parties, report <b>Hillary Nsambu and Geresom Musamali.</b><br>

THE Attorney General (AG) has appealed against the Constitutional Court’s ruling in which it suspended the registration of political parties, report Hillary Nsambu and Geresom Musamali.
“Take notice that the Attorney General being dissatisfied with the majority judgment of the Constitutional Court given on January 16, 2003, intends to appeal to the Supreme Court against the whole of the solid decision,” a document lodged on Friday in the Court of Appeal registry reads.
The lawyers representing the multipartyists in the Constitutional Court retorted saying that by appealing the AG was playing delaying tactics.
The Constitutional Court, on a 4-1 majority decision, last Thursday suspended the registration of political parties, pending the disposal of the petitions, which are challenging the constitutionality of the Political Parties and Organisations Act (PPOA) 2002.
The Act restricts the parties’ activities to their headquarters in Kampala.
Justices G.M. Okello, Mpagi-Bahigeine, Stephen Engwau and C.N.B.Kitumba allowed the petition by Dr James Rwanyarare and nine multiparty activists. Justice Kategaya Byamugisha dissented.
On Friday, the AG, Francis Ayume, met his staff at his chamber’s boardroom for several hours through lunch. Some private practicing advocates also attended. It was not known whether the meeting deliberated on the appeal.
Cheborion Barishaki, the commissioner for civil litigation, in the AG’s chambers told The New Vision after the meeting that they were in the process of formulating the grounds of appeal.
He denied that their meeting discussed the appeal. “This meeting was on a different matter all together,” he said when this journalist asked.
Bugweri MP Abdul Katuntu, a member of the legal and parliamentary affairs committee, said the appeal was a waste of time and taxpayer’s money.
Katuntu said the Government used sh1.1b to hire private lawyers with no known constitutional law expertise to represent the aG in the petition. “At the time of debating the POA in Parliament, all the lawyers in the legal and parliamentary affairs committee were unanimous about the constitutionality of the legislation.
“We warned that if the Government went ahead to transplant the restriction in Article 269 into this law, we would offend the constitution. But the “potato growers in the house” voted against us. These are now the consequences,” said Katuntu.
The Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) lawyer, Peter Walubiri, called for a political solution. Ends

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