Uganda’s election contestant goes to court
(AGN) – Lawyers for Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine filed a challenge in the Supreme Court against President Yoweri Museveni’s victory in last month’s election, claiming the poll was rigged.
Medard Sseggona, one of Wine’s lawyers, rejected the vote outcome, saying: “Any election Museveni participates in can never be a free and fair election”.
The 38-year-old singer-turned-lawmaker came a distant second behind veteran leader Museveni in the Jan. 14 vote that followed some of Uganda’s worst pre-election bloodshed in years. “We want nullification of the election. We do not want (Museveni) participating in any future election,” Sseggona said outside the Kampala courthouse where he filed the petition.
Museveni, 76, has ruled since 1986. He won a sixth term with 58.4 per cent of the vote, according to the latest updated count from the electoral commission.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, captured 35.1 per cent. He slammed the vote as a sham.
According to Sseggona, “soldiers invaded polling stations” and stuffed ballot boxes. Electoral registers were tampered with at other locations, he added.
“Museveni cannot be left to cheat and steal scot-free,” Sseggona said.
Museveni, however, declared the election the cleanest in Uganda’s post-independence history.
Under the constitution, Wine has 15 days from the declaration of results by the electoral commission to challenge the outcome. The Supreme Court must now rule on the petition within 45 days. w/pix of Y. Museveni (l) and B. Wine (r)
By Lisa Vives
