{UAH} Mbabazi‘s new plan to give Museveni a run for his money
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Amama Mbabazi addresses his first rally at the Mbale municipality cricket grounds on September 7, 2015. PHOTO | DAVID MAFABI
Posted Saturday, October 24 2015 at 13:53
IN SUMMARY
- The EastAfrican has learnt that Mr Mbabazi's lawyers have completed paperwork for the lawsuit, which will put the country's Judiciary on trial as it tests its mettle against the ruling regime.
- According to NRM deputy secretary-general Richard Todwong, the main purpose of the upcoming party conference "is to elect new national office bearers and NRM presidential flag-bearer for the 2016 elections."
- But Mr Mbabazi contests the candidature of President Museveni, who has all but completed the requisite steps set by the Electoral Commission for anyone to be duly nominated as a presidential candidate — as if he were already elected by his party's highest decision making organ as provided by NRM's constitution.
- Critics question this strategy, saying the former premier is simply wasting time in what they see as futile legal ventures, instead of investing it in canvassing for votes.
As Uganda's ruling party finalises preparations for its National Delegates Conference scheduled for October 30 to November 2, former secretary-general Amama Mbabazi is set to scuttle its plans by legally challenging the party's retrospective endorsement of President Yoweri Museveni as the National Resistance Movement flag bearer in next year's presidential polls.
The EastAfrican has learnt that Mr Mbabazi's lawyers have completed paperwork for the lawsuit, which will put the country's Judiciary on trial as it tests its mettle against the ruling regime.
"It presents yet another unique opportunity for the judiciary, and particularly the head of the Constitutional Court, to demonstrate to the world that contrary to public perceptions that they are easily influenced by the ruling party, they are men and women of conscience who are resolute in dispensing justice and are only guided by the constitution in doing so," said constitutional lawyer Peter Walubiri.
According to NRM deputy secretary-general Richard Todwong, the main purpose of the upcoming party conference "is to elect new national office bearers and NRM presidential flag-bearer for the 2016 elections."
But Mr Mbabazi contests the candidature of President Museveni, who has all but completed the requisite steps set by the Electoral Commission for anyone to be duly nominated as a presidential candidate — as if he were already elected by his party's highest decision making organ as provided by NRM's constitution.
President Museveni has even reserved November 3 at 9am as the date and time he would like the EC to formally declare him the NRM candidate.
But Mr Mbabazi's legal team believes all this is a pack of illegalities that the electoral body should not have entertained in the first place when President Museveni, through his agents, picked up nominations forms in the name of the NRM.
On October 6, Mr Mbabazi, through his lawyers asked the EC to cancel President Museveni's nomination because it breached the national law that requires party flagbearers to be elected by all their members first before they can seek nomination from the EC.
But NRM's lawyers and the party's elections body responded that President Museveni's nomination had been done within the law — that he became the party's automatic candidate since he is the only one who had expressed interest — a position the national EC seemed to agree with.
"If that is the case then why are they holding a delegates' conference to elect a presidential flag bearer if they already have one?" asked Fred Muwema, one of Mr Mbabazi's lead lawyers.
"Our client is still out of the country but the paperwork for legal action is ready. It can be filed either in the High Court or the Constitutional Court. Once he returns, he will issue us instructions on how to proceed especially regarding where to file it," Mr Muwema added.
The case is a trial of the judiciary given the perception that it is full of pro-NRM judges. For instance, Justice Steven Kavuma, who heads the Constitutional Court where the suit is likely to be filed, is registered as a founding member of NRM.
While Justice Kavuma insists he shed all previous contacts with the party once he became a judge, some lawyers who have been before him have questioned his calls in cases in which government has had an interest.
His appointment as Deputy Chief Justice is a subject of a Supreme Court petition. Those who filed it claim it was done fraudulently since he was not nominated to the position by the Judicial Service Commission, which is mandated by law to recommend judicial nominees to the president for appointment.
Political inclination
"Judges are appointed from the society and their political inclinations do not necessarily make them bad judges. We have had so many impartial judges with a strong political background. It is a question of an individual whether he can move on once he assumes a higher office in which he is supposed to be guided only by the Constitution," said Mr Walubiri, who has led many cases against the government in the Constitutional Court.
Mr Mbabazi's impending lawsuit is part of a multi-pronged approach the former prime minister has reportedly devised for the presidential race. He also plans to sponsor candidates at different levels of governance.
The aim is to spread the challenge against President Museveni across a number of fronts, hoping that this will stretch the system and force it to give in at some point, a source familiar with the goings-on in his camp argue.
"What is the cost of taking a case to court? It is non-disruptive, non-confrontational. It allows many other things to go on. But imagine that the courts were to find their bite and uphold our challenge. We would have achieved a victory we are pursuing in so many other ways and it wouldn't be only for us but for the rule of law and the progress of democracy in this country," the source said.
This will not be the first case Mr Mbabazi takes before the courts of law. Since December 2014 when he was fired as secretary general through a controversial amendment to the party's constitution, Mr Mbabazi has, through his associates, filed at least five cases that have a direct bearing on his presidential aspirations, but none has been heard and disposed of.
Critics question this strategy, saying the former premier is simply wasting time in what they see as futile legal ventures, instead of investing it in canvassing for votes. But his lawyer thinks otherwise.
"All politics is law and you cannot avoid it even if you want. It finally catches up with you. For instance, whether you fight a long war as these people did and you succeed or even if you lead a coup you still need some law whether it is a legal notice or a decree to be recognised as the new president. If you look at the chaos in the ongoing NRM primaries it is mostly because the law has been disregarded. So if you get the law right, you will have eased the politics," Mr Muwema said.
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