Expelled MPs rush to Supreme Court for relief

Feb 25, 2014

The four Members of Parliament expelled from the NRM party have appealed to the Supreme Court.

By Hillary Nsambu                         

The four Members of Parliament expelled from the NRM party have appealed to the Supreme Court seeking to stop the Speaker of Parliament from evicting them, pending the final disposal of their main appeal.

The expellees also notified the Speaker of Parliament of their appeal to the Supreme Court through a letter written by Kwesigabo, Bamwine and Walubiri Advocates.

This followed a 4 - 1 majority ruling delivered on February 21, 2014 in which the Constitutional Court ordered the Speaker of Parliament to declare vacant the four MPs’ seats in Parliament. The court also ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to arrange for fresh elections in their respective constituencies.

The four are Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga County), Wilfred Niwagaba (Ndorwa East), Mohamad Nsereko (Kampala Central) and Barnabas Tinkasimire (Buyaga West).

The court ruled that the four MPs lost their seats in Parliament upon being expelled from their party, which they represented.

Following their expulsion, they became aliens in the House as they no longer had any constituency to represent.

Represented by a team of at least 10 lawyers led by retired Supreme Court Justice George Wilson Kanyeihamba, the expellees Tuesday filed an application for a temporary injunction restraining the Speaker of Parliament from implementing the Constitutional Court’s orders; pending the hearing and final disposal of their substantive application for a permanent stay of execution until the whole appeal is finally disposed of.

The MPs also seek to restrain the Electoral Commission from arranging for fresh elections in their respective constituencies, arguing that they still own their seats in Parliament until the final disposal of the petition against them and; which they have high likelihood of success.

 
 

 

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