As you may all be aware, on 1ST February one of the presidential candidates in the previously held election Hon Robert Kyagulanyi filed an election petition in the Supreme Court challenging the election results. The responds in this case included the electoral commission, Yoweri K.Museveni and the Attorney General.
According to the petitioner, he referred to the previous election as the most illegal one full of election malpractices and vote rigging which of course is expected from any candidate who losses and election.
Just days after the petition was filed, the petitioners started alarming asking court to allow them table additional evidence yet they had all the time to do so in the period that is acceptable by law. This is when the lawyers of the petitioner and the petitioner started whining and rolling in the mud claiming that the judiciary was against them.
In fact on the panel of the judges, its only one judge that agreed that they should file additional evidence but still they couldn’t appreciate the one judge who sided with their illegal wish.
The petitioner lost his cool because his additional evidence was not accepted and he launched an attack on the judiciary something that really depicted him as an amateur in politics because many other people have been in the courts of law but none has made noise like this National Unity Platform presidential candidate. I understand what he is going through after losing an election that he was sure that he was going to win because of the crowds that used to appear at his rallies.
Because he decided to give us chance to make a proper ruling, as a counsel representing a huge number of people and also as a member of the court of public opinion, I decided to put my simple truthful and well thought ruling in this piece of writing and I am sure the petitioner will not again appeal my ruling because he stated on his social media pages that we the public should make the ruling because we are the supreme court.
My ruling is as follows, First of all, talking about elements of judicial independence. In exercising judicial duties judges are subject to no authority but the law and not their personal desires, not the pressure of their colleagues, not the demands of public or commercial or political opinion by the National Unity Platform, NRM, Hon Kyagulanyi or President Museveni, and not the wishes of any outside group.
It is said that criticisms of judges by politicians damages their independence and it’s the same thing that we have seen with our dear populist petitioner and his lawyers led by Hon Ssegona. These lawyers have kept on lamenting from day one and failed to follow the law that they learnt and practiced for some good years. In my ruling, I will not blame these lawyers for the many gaps that they have had in representing their client and I will side with Justice Kanyeihamba who said that Kyagulanyi was misled by his own lawyers to think that withdrawing was the only way to sort the petition that he filed.
The judiciary has always been independent but our opposition only praises and sings songs of praise to it when it rules in their favor and if it doesn’t then that’s their time to lament and say the judiciary sides with president Museveni and his government. Among the issues that Kyagulanyi presented for withdrawing is that the chief justice met the president, this is just laughable, so since the chief justice is on the panel means he an not engage with any government personnel or even going at state house? So since the religious leaders are meant to unite us they are not supposed to take sides yet they have been at your place several times eating pillao and molokony in the past many weeks.
What I have learnt about populist leaders is that they want to always appear on the headlines of newspapers, News on local and international news and indeed you have achieved via there Mr.presdient.The rise of populism, a political argument that pits ordinary people against government elite is putting democracy at risk in our country Uganda. When populist leaders discredit formal institutions and functions, democracy is being undermined and hollowed out.
This kind of populism by this group of NUP argues that elites are corrupt and the people need better representation, but makes very few policy commitments beyond this criticism that is being put everywhere on social media and international media.
Populist politicians view the formal institutions of open-minded democracy as corrupt creations spawned by dishonest establishment elites and so they undermine these institutions, such as the courts, regulatory agencies, intelligence services, the press, and so on.
These opposition populists justify their attacks on state agencies as replacing discredited and corrupt institutions with ones that serve the people yet indeed they are just looking for political capital and space to serve their own interests. Moreover, precisely because many of these opposition politicians claim to represent the people, they always keep fronting the people, so they get mileage but deep inside they always know they are in business.
Therefore as one of the judges sitting on the panel of the public court, I rule that Hon Kyagulanyi presented a very funny unserious case that wasn’t backed up with enough evidence so to avoid losing the legal battle, he decided to withdraw the case which is very okay though it may in turn cost him a lot so as part of my ruling, I request that the petitioner and the defendants each cater for their costs so that Ugandan can move on as we wait for the swearing in.
Michael Woira
Public Court Representative
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