I have no problem with Kyagulanyi withdrawing the case- Museveni

By Francis Lubega

26^th February 2021

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has on Friday morning responded to Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu’s application of withdrawing the presidential election petition.

Museveni through his lawyers led by Usaama Sebuufu says he is not objecting to the application however, in his response he has clarified on some issues that were argued by Kyagulanyi like the issue of rigging votes which he says wasn’t true.

He has said now its court to determine the fate for the application as for him he has no problem with the withdrawal.

On Wednesday this week Kyagulanyi through his lawyers led by Medard Lubega Seggona filed a withdraw application at supreme court on six grounds some which include that his witnesses are being abducted, tortured, harassed and intimidated by state security operatives at the watch of Museveni who is the first respondent and the Attorney General who is the third respondent.

He also argued that the organs of the state like Uganda Police and the National Identification of Registrations of Persons Authority-NIRA are being used by the respondents to investigate and infringe on his privacy and on the privacy of his witnesses among others, thus he couldn’t continue with the case.

The day for hearing this application is not yet fixed since the Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny Dollo asked the registrar to see to it that the application is first gazetted in the national gazette for the public to see and after it’s published the application can be fixed for hearing.

Meanwhile, Willy Mayambala, a Presidential candidate in last month’s concluded presidential elections yesterday asked the Supreme Court to allow him take over the Presidential Election Petition filed by his National Unity Platform counterpart Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu through a letter he wrote.

Section 61 Subsection 2 of the Presidential Elections Act states that “On the hearing of the application for withdrawal, any candidate who might have been a petitioner in respect of the election to which the petition refers may apply to the court to be substituted as a petitioner for the petitioner who desires to withdraw”.