Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Director of Information and Publicity at the National Resistance Movement Party -NRM secretariat Emmanuel Dombo says the party does not need the court’s endorsement to legitimize its victory in the just concluded presidential election.
Dombo was responding to the decision by the former National Unity Platform Presidential Candidate Robert Kyagulanyi to withdraw a petition he filed in the Supreme Court challenging the outcome of the presidential election held on the 14th of January 2021.
Kyagulanyi on Monday ordered his lawyers to withdraw a petition that he had filed in the Supreme Court challenging the outcome of the election won by the National Resistance-NRM candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
The elections were criticized both at home and abroad as having been marred by several irregularities and malpractice. Both local and foreign press reported on the extent to which violence by state security agencies and several irregularities like an internet blackout by the government that affected the election.
“The weeks leading up to Uganda’s recently concluded elections were characterized by widespread violence and human rights abuses. The abuses included killings by security forces, arrests and beatings of opposition supporters and journalists, disruption of opposition rallies, and a shutdown of the internet,” the Human Rights watch stated three days after the election.
The US State Department on the same day said it was “deeply troubled” by reports of violence and irregularities surrounding Uganda’s presidential election, which saw Yoweri Museveni win a sixth elective term in office.
The EU Parliament this month adopted 19 resolutions taking into stock the human rights violations in Uganda in the period before, during and after the recent elections. In the resolutions was a call for justice for Ugandans who died in the November 2020 riots, and a call for sanctions against individuals and organizations responsible for human rights violations in Uganda.
Kyagulanyi has accused the NRM lawyers of trying to intimidate him against withdrawing the petition since they believe he has a lame case that they can easily win and claim legitimacy for President Museveni.
But Dombo speaking to URN in an interview said all that matters to the NRM is the Electoral Commission’s declaration. He says the party is not concerned about securing legitimacy in the court.
When asked about what he thinks of Kyagulanyi’s decision to present his case against the NRM in the court of public opinion Dombo argued that it is the same public that denied him votes so his attempt is futile.********
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