In closing arguments yesterday in the Supreme court, lawyers for Amama Mbabazi, the main challenger to President Museveni’s re-election victory, worked harder than ever to prove the charges of voter bribery, intimidation and disenfranchisement of voters against the president. But without supporting evidence, the lawyers came for tough questioning from Chief Justice Katureebe. They also couldn’t prove that discarding the old voters’ register by the Electoral Commission affected the outcome of the presidential and parliamentary elections. The Mbabazi lawyers however, did a good job poking holes into the Electoral Commission’s handling of polling on election day and the final declaration of results. In his robust presentation, Mbabazi’s lead counsel, Mohmed Mbabazi, told court that President Museveni’s victory should be nullified because the Electoral Commission did not rely on hard copies of the declaration of results forms and tally sheets from districts when declaring the winner.
During cross-examination on Monday, Badru Kiggundu, the EC chairman, admitted in court that he relied on “electronically-wired” results from the districts to declare Museveni winner of the presidential election.
But Mbabazi told the nine justices led by Chief Justice Bart Katureebe that the Presidential Elections Act, which streamlines how elections are conducted only talks about hard copy declaration forms and tally sheets, which up to date the EC did not provide.
Full Article: Uganda: Judges to Mbabazi – Prove Voter Bribery, Intimidation – allAfrica.com.