{"id":23654,"date":"2016-03-04T00:52:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T00:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/uganda-nine-judges-to-hear-mbabazi-s-petition\/"},"modified":"2016-03-04T00:54:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T00:54:31","slug":"uganda-nine-judges-to-hear-mbabazi-s-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/uganda-nine-judges-to-hear-mbabazi-s-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda:Nine judges to hear Mbabazi\u2019s petition"},"content":{"rendered":"

{A panel of nine judges of the Supreme Court will hear Amama Mbabazi\u2019s presidential election petition challenging the re-election of President Museveni. The hearing will begin on Monday.}<\/p>\n

In a statement issued by the court registrar, Mr Tom Chemutai, on March 2, all concerned parties to the petition will attend the pre-hearing conference on Monday, which is the first stage of the hearing of the petition referred to as Presidential Election Petition No. 1 of 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe honourable justices of the Supreme Court have set Monday 7 of March, 2016, as the pre-hearing date for the petition referred to above,\u201d reads part of the statement by the court registrar Mr Tom Chemutai on March 2.<\/p>\n

Mr Mbabazi\u2019s lawyers yesterday served Mr Museveni with a copy of the election petition. Lawyers Severino Twinobusingye and Michael Akampurira met the President at State House Entebbe at 6.30pm where he received and signed a copy of the petition. A statement issued by State House said Mr Museveni was with his lawyers but were not named.<\/p>\n

The Go Forward Deputy communications director Josephine Mayanja said Mr Museveni acknowledged receipt of the petition in writing. \u201cIt was a cordial meeting and he was served personally,\u201d she said.
\nThe panel to hear the petition will be led by Chief Justice Bart Katureebe. It includes justices Jotham Tumwesigye, Esther Kisaakye, Stella Arach-Amoko, Augustine Nshimye, Faith Mwondha, Rubby Aweri Opio, Eldad Mwangusya and Prof Lillian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza. This means that all the Justices of the Supreme Court will hear the high profile petition.<\/p>\n

In two previous presidential election petitions by FDC candidate Dr Kizza Besigye against Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in 2001 and 2006, the panels comprised five and seven justices respectively, which was the full composition of the Supreme Court at the time. Among the nine justices named on the current panel, it\u2019s only Chief Justice Katureebe who was part of the 2006 panel, meaning that the rest will be hearing a presidential election petition for the first time.<\/p>\n

Former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi filed the petition on Tuesday challenging Mr Museveni\u2019s election on February 18. Mr Mbabazi is seeking nullification of Mr Museveni\u2019s election on 28 grounds which include non-compliance with the law, vote stealing and intimidation of voters and agents by security forces.<\/p>\n

The EC declared President Museveni the winner of the February 18 elections with 60.7 per cent of the total vote, followed by FDC\u2019s Kizza Besigye with 35 percent and Mr Mbabazi came third with 1.4 percent.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has only 30 days to hear the petition and deliver its judgment.<\/p>\n

Then court registrar Mr Chemutai said all the parties to the petition had been invited for the pre-hearing conference on Monday.
\n\u201cThis is to invite you to the pre-hearing conference scheduled to take place at 10 am at the Supreme Court Hall,\u201d reads Mr Chemutai\u2019s statement of March 2.<\/p>\n

The parties are: Directorate of Legal Services, National Resistance Movement Secretariat, the Electoral Commission, Attorney General, Mbabazi\u2019s lawyers Akampurira and Partners Advocates, Muwema & Co Advocates & Solicitors and Twinobusingye Severino & Co Advocates.
\nThe pre-hearing conference is to allow all the parties agree on the contentious issues which need to be resolved by court during the hearing of the petition. The substantive hearing of the petition starts thereafter.<\/p>\n

In the petition Mbabazi alleges bribery of voters. Breaking down the bribery allegations, the former prime minister claims President Museveni with his consent and through his campaign agents, bribed voters of West Nile region with hoes to vote him in turn.<\/p>\n

He also cites Museveni\u2019s payment of Shs250,000 to each voter in the villages across the country on two occasions with the intent to influence them from voting any other presidential candidate.
\nMr Mbabazi now wants court to declare that President Museveni was not validly elected as President and his election be annulled and fresh elections be ordered.<\/p>\n

{{What it is}}<\/p>\n

The pre-hearing conference sets out the contentious issues that the concerned parties want court to resolve in the petition. Pre-hearing conferences are held before the actual hearing and are held with the consent of all the parties.<\/p>\n

\"President-elect<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{A panel of nine judges of the Supreme Court will hear Amama Mbabazi\u2019s presidential election petition challenging the re-election of President Museveni. The hearing will begin on Monday.} In a statement issued by the court registrar, Mr Tom Chemutai, on March 2, all concerned parties to the petition will attend the pre-hearing conference on Monday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23654"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23654"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}