By Ruth Anderah
City lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi has run to the East African Court of Justice challenging the decision by the Supreme Court to declare Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the duly elected President of Uganda.
In his petition, Mabirizi contends that the said decision amounted to Supreme Court usurping powers not granted to it under the laws of Uganda.
He argues that Presidential Elections Act does not give powers to the Supreme Court to declare a person duly elected upon withdrawal of the Petition.
But instead, such a declaration can only be made once the petition has been heard up to its conclusion which was not the case with the election petition filed by former NUP’s presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi.
According to Mabirizi, it doesn’t mean that when there is no one else still challenging Museveni’s victory, the court makes a declaration that he was duly elected when it did not investigate the allegations that were brought before it by Kyagulanyi in his petition which he withdrew before its logical conclusion.
He added that without hearing the case up to its logical conclusion, there is no way how the court should have validated Museveni’s victory and he, therefore, wants the decision nullified.
