Bobi Wine lawyers serve Museveni with poll petition
NRM secretary general Kasule Lumumba (right) and lawyer Esau Isingoma (left) receive the petition from NUP lawyers at the Supreme Court in Kololo, Kampala, yesterday. Photo | ABUBAKER LUBOWA.
What you need to know:
- Mr Kyagulanyi, who was the first runner up in the January 14 presidential elections, is seeking the court’s orders to annul Mr Museveni’s victory in the polls.
Lawyers representing Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader, yesterday served National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni with copies of the poll petition they filed at the Suprme Court on Monday.
Mr Kyagulanyi, who was the first runner up in the January 14 presidential elections, is seeking the court’s orders to annul Mr Museveni’s victory in the polls.
According to the final results released on January 28, Mr Museveni won with more than six million votes (58 per cent) while Mr Kyagulanyi had 3.6 million votes (35 per cent).
Ms Justine Kasule Lumumba, the secretary general of the NRM party, which is led by Mr Museveni, received the petition on his behalf at the Supreme Court offices in Kololo, Kampala.
Mr Kyagulanyi’s lawyers had since Tuesday been trying to reach out to the President to have him served in person but failed.
Ms Lumumba said this was because the President had not yet instructed a law firm to handle his poll petition correspondences but has since instructed K&K Advocates.
“By law, they are not supposed to serve the candidate unless the said candidate has given instructions to either an individual or a team. As of yesterday (Tuesday), nobody had received instructions from the candidate,” she said.
Mr Kyagulanyi’s lawyers said: “Finally, we have got relief because we had traversed almost the entire Kampala looking for the first respondent (Mr Museveni) to serve him personally as the law mandates.”
Mr Museveni now has three days (which will end tomorrow) to respond to Mr Kyagulanyi’s accusations.
The Electoral Commission and the Attorney General are the other joint respondents and have up to the close of court business today to respond since they were served much earlier.
