The republic of uganda in the supreme court of uganda at kampala

Col (RTD) Dr. Besigye Kiiza, the Petitioner, this year contested presidential election with five other candidates. The others were Awori Aggrey, Bwengve Francis, Karuhanga K.Chaapa, Kibirige Mayanja Muhammad and Museveni Yoweri Kaguta, the first respondent. The contest was for the office of the President of the Republic of Uganda. The Electoral Commission, the second respondent, which organized the election, declared the first respondent the winner. He polled 5,123,360,votes representing (69.3%) of valid votes cast. The petitioner who polled 2,055,795 votes (27.8%) was dissatisfied with the election result. On 23rd March, 2001, he petitioned this Court and set out many complaints as the basis for his dissatisfaction. The petitioner asked the court to declare

(a) That Museveni Yoweri Kaguta was not validly elected as President.

(b) That the election be annulled

Five issues were framed for decision by the court. Each is produced in the appropriate place in this judgment. The hearing of this petition was concluded on Good Friday the 13 April this year. By law we were required to give our decision within 30 days from 23/3/2001. So Judgment was due on 21/4/2001, barely eight days after the close of hearing. Because of the volume of the material produced during the hearing of the petition, it was not possible within those remaining 8 days to produce reasoned judgments incorporating views on a number of important legal questions and on the relevant materials cited by the parties. Since each of us had formed his opinion on the petition, we gave our decision on 21/4/2001 and promised to give reasons later. In that decision, we pointed out that the decision was by majority and that each one of us would give his reasons later. I now give my reasons in support of the position I took on the petition namely that the petition should succeed.