Supreme Court will on Friday this week read out its detailed judgment in the presidential election petition filed by former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi challenging the President Yoweri Museveni victory in the recent election.
According to Registrar of the court Tom Chemutai says the reading of the full judgment will take place this Friday August 26, almost two months after the initial expected date.
Chief Justice Bart Katureebe while reading out the court's mini judgment on March 31, promised to read out the full judgment within a period of 90 days. This roadmap implied that the Supreme Court would read out its full judgment by June 30.
"The full verdict is for this Friday and we are issuing out the judgment notices to the parties," Chemutai said.
In the judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the election of the National Resistance Movement-NRM party candidate Yoweri Museveni. All the nine justices collectively agreed that although there was non-compliance by the Electoral Commission in conducting the elections, the same non-compliance did not substantially affect the final results to warrant nullification.
The justices also observed that Mbabazi's lawyers didn't produce enough evidence to support their claims against Museveni.
"We hereby declare that the 1st respondent (Yoweri Museveni) was validly elected as President in accordance with Article 104 of the Constitution and section 59 of the Presidential Elections Act," the justices ruled.
The presidential election petition arose on March 1 when Amama Mbabazi, who came third in the hotly contested presidential race, petitioned the Supreme Court, challenging the President Museveni's victory. Mbabazi cited noncompliance on the part of the Electoral Commission and bribery incidents by the President as some of the grounds to nullify Museveni's victory.
