Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |
The Court of Appeal has ordered the Uganda People’s Congress-UPC to elect a new party president.
On Monday, justices Elizabeth Musoke, Christopher Madrama and Irene Mulyagonja ruled that the current UPC Party President Jimmy Akena had illegally been elected into office during the 2015 party primaries.
Trouble for Akena followed a petition filed by the late Dr Joseph Bossa the then UPC vice President under the Olara Otunnu administration who challenged his election in 2015 on grounds that the UPC party Electoral Commission did not have the powers to declare him as UPC president.
The deceased who was later substituted with Professor Edward Kakonge argued in his petition that the delegate’s conference, which elected Akena wasn’t properly constituted.
High Court Judge Yasin Nyanzi agreed with the deceased and declared that the leadership of Akena was illegal. Nyanzi also ordered that Akena should not in any way be running the party activities including finances before he ordered for fresh elections.
However, Akena challenged Justice Nyanzi’s ruling in the Court of Appeal. However, in December 2016, Akena obtained an interim order through the former Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma which kept him in office for nearly the entire term of office.
Akena through his lawyers led by Joseph Kyazze also noted that the lower court erred in law and fact by declaring that he was not the lawfully declared president of the party and that his election was illegal.
The Court of Appeal Judges occurred with Justice Nyanzi’s findings and dismissed Akena’s appeal on grounds that he had not secured a third of all votes required in the nominations at the District Conferences in line with the UPC Constitution.
The Judges also noted that there were inconsistencies in the elections because Akena said that he was unopposed during nominations in the districts which were not the case.
Citing the Constitution and Presidential Elections Act, Justice Mulyagonja noted that the two laws are clear on a candidate to be declared unopposed.
“I, therefore, agree with the trial judge that the declaration made by part of the Electoral Commission of the UPC was not provided for by the UPC Constitution. Neither was it provided for by the party Electoral Commission instructions for convening districts conferences for nominations of the party Presidential candidates”, said Mulyagonja in her Judgement.
The Judges also argued that whereas members of the UPC party had declared Akena as the designate UPC “President-Elect”, the party Constitution doesn’t have such a designation.
To support their decision, the Judges ordered the UPC members to conduct nominations and elect a president in conformity with the provisions of the constitution of the UPC and each party will bear its costs.
In July 2020, the Court of Appeal issued an interim order blocking UPC from conducting a National Delegates Conference that was slated for August 1 2020, where a new party president was going to be elected.
However, Akena defied the court order and went ahead to preside over the delegates conference from where he was elected as the party’s presidential flag bearer for the 2021 general elections.
However, the party issued a statement saying that they were not going to participate in the presidential race.
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