Uganda: Bobi Wine Asks Supreme Court to Allow Additional Affidavits to Support Petition
Former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has asked the Supreme Court to give him extra time to file additional affidavits in support of his petition challenging the victory of Yoweri Museveni in the January 14 elections.
In the application, Mr Kyagulanyi, the leader of National Unity Platform (NUP) party, reasoned that the additional affidavits are necessary in the petition to enable the court to effectively inquire into and determine all questions involved in the matter.
“The time granted to the applicant for filing additional evidence in support of the petition is enlarged by one extra day to enable him file and serve all his compiled affidavits,” Mr Kyagulanyi states.
Through his lawyers, Mr Kyagulanyi, who was the first runner up in the January 14 polls, contends that the application be brought without delay because of the prevailing special circumstances that warrant the grant of the application.
“The respondents shall not be prejudiced by extra time being granted to the petitioner to file and serve the additional evidence in the petition,” reads part of the court documents.
He says it is in the interest of justice, equity and fairness that the court grants him extra time to file and serve his additional evidence.
Mr Kyagulanyi’s application seeks court’s permission to allow him file the 127 additional affidavits which the country’s highest appellate court rejected on Monday, reasoning that it was out of time.
The affidavits were attached with evidential documents, audio and video compact discs (CDs) in four volumes.
The rejected documents included affidavits by Bobi’s NUP party lawyer Benjamin Katana and party secretary general David Lewis, Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament Betty Nambooze, and other sworn statements by jailed singer Buken Ali, aka Nubian Li, and veteran journalist Kalundi Serumaga.
Last week, the court directed Mr Kyagulanyi’s lawyers to file their additional affidavits and evidence by February 14.
On Monday, Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo issued a memo directing the court registrar, Ms Harriet Nalukwago, to inform Mr Kyagulanyi’s lawyers that the said affidavits were filed out of time.
The respondents are Yoweri Museveni, the election winner, the Electoral Commission and the Attorney General, Mr William Byaruhanga.
Meanwhile, the court is yet to fix a hearing date for the application.
Court response
In the letter to Mr Kyagulanyi’s lawyers, Ms Nalukwago wrote that the court still stands on its February 11 directive which required them to file additional evidence latest by February 14 at 5pm.
The registrar’s letter indicated that the court would only allow the additional 50 affidavits that the NUP lawyers filed within the deadline on Sunday.
The Supreme Court and presidential election (Election Petitions) rules, according to a lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity, allows the court to receive such documents out of time.
