By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The Supreme Court of Uganda has set Thursday, February 11, 2021, as pre-hearing conference date for the election petition filed by National Unity Platform’s Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu challenging NRM’s Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s victory as the 2021-2026 Ugandan President.
This has been confirmed by the Supreme Court registrar Ms, Harriet Ssali Nalukwago, who noted that the petitioners and the respondents’ lawyers will on Thursday meet with the panel of nine justices to streamline some issues before setting the hearing date.
She said, “We shall have the prehearing before the nine justices led by the Chief Justice on February 11, 2021, to iron out a number of issues. Within that pre-hearing, they will be given timelines within which to give their written submissions and by the time the hearing starts, the submissions are with the justices.”
TheSpy Uganda has since learnt that a panel of nine justices of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny-Dollo will hear the petition.
The other justices on the panel include Faith Mwondha, Lillian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza, Paul Mugamba, Esther Kisaakye, Stella Arach Amoko, Rubby Opio Aweri, Percy Tuhaise, Mike Chibita and Ezekiel Muhanguzi.
What Is A Pre-Hearing Conference
According to books of laws, a pre-hearing conference is one where parties involved in a case meet with judges to determine the number of issues before the case hearing begins.
The subjects addressed at the prehearing conference vary significantly from one case to another depending on the nature of the issues and the number of parties involved.
In some cases, it may be necessary to establish a detailed schedule of prehearing procedures, including deadlines for the filing of intervention petitions, motions, and prefilled testimonies.
Meanwhile, all these come after Kyagulanyi challenged the results that raised from the January 14th polls which were announced officially on January 16th 2021 by the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama.
Museveni was declared the winner with 5,851,037 votes representing 58.64 per cent against Kyagulanyi’s 3,475,298 votes representing 34.85 per cent as provisional results, which was on January 28th finally updated to 6,042,898 votes for Museveni representing 58.38% and 3,631,437 votes for Kyagulanyi representing 35.0% of the total valid votes cast.
But Kyagulanyi disputed the results, hence petitioning the Supreme Court seeking to set aside Museveni’s victory. Kyagulanyi argued that the election process was not free and fair as it was characterized by a number of irregularities like fraud, voter bribery, intimidation, violence that resulted into loss of lives, arrests among others. (www.armorfenceco.com)
