Uganda Opposition Leader Bobi Wine Accuses Court of Bias, Withdraws Election Petition

Ugandan opposition figure Bobi Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, speaks at a press conference in Kampala, Feb. 22, 2021.

KAMPALA - Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, says he will withdraw his petition at the Supreme Court challenging January's re-election of President Yoweri Museveni. Wine alleged bias in the court toward Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, and said his side was not being allowed to present evidence of fraud in the vote.

In announcing his decision Monday, Wine said authorities had blocked his attempt to present a case, citing the police lockdown of his party’s offices, and the military denying access to his lawyers and officials of his National Unity Platform party.

He also accused the Supreme Court of rejecting as many as 200 affidavits.

A patrol car of the Ugandan police is seen stationed outside the compound of opposition leader Bobi WIne on Jan. 20, 2021.

Wine said this is a sign the judiciary does not intend to serve justice in the matter and they would not participate in what he called mockery to justice.

“The Supreme Court said, we could only submit, in this our petition, for 30 minutes. Now, that was clear, one, the Supreme Court did not want this matter to attract so much attention. So, for that matter, for the reasons we’ve given above, we have decided to withdraw from their court. The courts are not independent; it’s clear that these people are working for Mr. Museveni,” he said.

Through his lawyers, Wine filed the petition February 1st seeking to nullify the election that saw President Museveni win a sixth term with 58 percent of the votes.

They also asked the court to ensure that Museveni can never run again in an election, accusing him of orchestrating violence, using soldiers to pre-tick ballots and invade polling stations.

Jameson Karemani, the court registrar, said the court is not bothered by Wine’s allegations of favoritism.

He said once the court receives the application to withdraw the petition, judges will decide on the matter, but it will be conditional.

“Conditional in the sense that, you filed a petition and served it on other parties, the parties had to go out of their way to prepare themselves for your petition. Now you have withdrawn it; they have incurred costs. So, the condition may be for you to be asked to pay the costs,” said Karemani.

Last week, President Museveni, the electoral commission and the attorney general, filed a total of 185 affidavits in response to the 53 grounds raised by NUP lawyers.

Oscar Kihika, Museveni’s lawyer, said officials will wait for Wine’s application.

“He’s made the announcement; we have heard it. What for us we do as the legal team on the other side is to wait for the application to be filed and served on us as required by the law,” said the lawyer.

Wine said the matter will now be presented before what he calls the people’s court, meaning the court of public opinion.

 

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Malian opposition leader still missing ahead of general elections

A file photo of Soumaïla Cissé, leader of Mali's opposition party, Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD).  © Luc Gnago, REUTERS

Mali's government said on Thursday that leading opposition figure Soumaila Cisse had been kidnapped in the West African nation's volatile centre, just days before a long-delayed parliamentary poll. 

In an unprecedented first for a Malian politician of his rank, unidentified gunmen kidnapped Cisseand his team on Wednesday afternoon, his party said.  

The Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD) party sounded the alarm later on Wednesday after Cisse failed to turn up to an appointment and was no longer answering his phone. 

Cisse is a former finance minister and has run for the presidency three times. 

The circumstances of his disappearance remain unclear, but the government and URD members have said it was a kidnapping.

On Thursday morning, URD spokesman Demba Traore told reporters that Cisse was travelling with a group of 12 people on two jeeps when unidentified gunmen took them. 

Five people were freed on Thursday morning, he said, adding that two from the freed group were wounded. One later died. 

"During the kidnap, there was shooting," he said, explaining that Cisse's bodyguard had been hit.

"Unfortunately, he couldn't survive his injuries and passed away," Traore said. 

Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012, and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives.  

Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict in Mali has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists are active in the area where Cisse and his team disappeared. 

"All the arrangements are being made to find the missing people and return them to their families," Mali's government said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the disappearance as a kidnapping.

Olivier Salgado, the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, said the United Nations had deployed a helicopter to search for the missing politician and his associates.

The European Union's ambassador to Mali, Bart Ouvry, also said on Twitter on Thursday that Cisse's disappearance was worrying. 

Cisse disappeared while campaigning for a long-awaited parliamentary poll which is scheduled to take place in Mali on Sunday, and which has been delayed several times due to insecurity in the country. 

Virus vote

The vote on Sunday is viewed by many as a first step towards ending the spiral of violence in Mali. 

After being postponed several times, holding a parliamentary election was a key recommendation from crisis talks in December, which aimed at exploring non-military solutions to the country's crisis. 

The current crop of MPs in the country was elected in 2013, in a ballot won by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's Rally for Mali party.

Another parliamentary vote was meant to take place in late 2018, following Keita's re-election. 

But it never did, and the poll was postponed several times for reasons such as a strike by judges and spiralling insecurity in Mali. 

Keita announced on Wednesday that a first round of voting would go ahead on Sunday, despite rumours of a possible postponement due to coronavirus. 

Mali has recorded two coronavirus cases to date, in two nationals who had recently arrived from France.

Keita said that the vote would take place in "scrupulous respect" of health measures, however.

Mali has stopped flights to and from virus-stricken countries. On Wednesday, Keita also announced a nationwide night-time curfew in order to curb its spread. 

Source AFP

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