Ugandans went to the polls on 15th to vote for their Members of parliament and president for the next five years. 48 hours later, the Byabakama-led Electoral Commission declared the election results.
At the National Tally Centre in Lweza, Justice Simon Byabakama declared President Museveni winner of the highly contested polls with 7,946,772 votes (71%) followed by Bobi Wine who was Museveni’s closest rival who garnered 2741238 votes (24.72%) and these were followed by the other 6 candidates.
This is Museveni’s 7th electoral term which now pushes his grip to power to 45 years. Bobi Wine has since rejected the results which he has termed ‘fake’ and urged Ugandans to demand their voice and walk to freedom.
Now Robert Kasibante has filled a petition in the Supreme Court which currently has no Chief Justice following the retiring of Justice Alphonse Owiny Dollo yesterday after clocking 70 years and over 40 years of legal practice.
In his petition, Kasibante says he’s not happy by both the declaration of Museveni as the winner and the manner in which the election was conducted. He claims that the entire electoral process was marred by widespread illegalities and non compliance with the law which largely affected the final outcomes.
Kasibante in his affidavit to support the petition, he says the Byabakama-led Commission failed on it’s mandate to organize free and fair elections claiming it acted under the influence of President Museveni is the first respondent in the petition and other state actors.
The petition sites the involvement of police and UPDF in acts of violence, intimidation and harassment of opposition candidates and their supporters during the campaign period. Another ground for the petition is the Electoral Commission’s directive of telling voters to go home after voting.
He also accuses the Electoral Commission of failing to gazette 15,256 polling station ahead of the election representing nearly 30% of all polling stations countrywide which he argues that all votes cast at these polling stations were unlawful and should not have been included in the national tally.
Kasibante further alleges misuse of government resources by the incumbent, including deployment of government vehicles, security personnel and public facilities for campaign purposes.
The former presidential candidate now appeals to the Supreme Court to declare that Museveni was not duly elected, nullify the election results, order an audit of election returns and BVV systems and direct the Electoral Commission to conduct a fresh presidential election in compliance with the law.
In the last Election, NUP Candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine portioned the Supreme Court but would later withdraw the petition sighting bias of the Supreme bench. He said he’s taking his petition to the public court. In 2016, the then Presidential Candidate John Patrick Amama Mbabazi also petitioned the supreme court. Not Besigye the main Challenger.
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