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Ugandan court upholds presidential election results

Xinhua, March 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Uganda's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Feb. 18 presidential election results in which incumbent President Yoweri Museveni was declared winner.

Presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi early this month sued Museveni, the country's Electoral Commission and the Attorney General citing irregularities in the election process.

He urged the Court to annul the elections results noting that the offenses like voter bribery, threats of violence among others had a substantial effect on the final outcome.

All the nine judges on the bench ruled that Museveni was validly elected as president according to the country's laws.

"We find that there was noncompliance but we are not satisfied that the noncompliance affected the results substantially," Chief Justice Bart Katureebe read out the ruling.

Museveni who has been in power for over 30 years won the elections by 60.75 percent followed by Kizza Besigye who got 35.37 and Mbabazi who garnered 1.43 percent. The remaining percent was shared among Abed Bwanika, Benon Biraro, Joseph Mabirizi, Venasius Baryamureba and Maureen Kyalya.

This is not the first time the Court has declined to annul the presidential election results in the country.

Besigye who has challenged Museveni in three presidential elections has gone to court before seeking redress. In 2001 and 2006, he went to Court noting that there were gross malpractices.

Court in both the cases argued that whereas there were malpractices, they were not substantial enough to annul the election results. In the 2001, it was a three-to-two decision, and then a four-to-three decision in 2006.

Since the Election Day, government beefed up security in major towns in the country to prevent the outbreak of election violence.

Besigye remains incarcerated at his residence with police arguing that he is likely to cause chaos once he comes into the capital Kampala.

Meanwhile as Court was making its ruling there were protests in the capital Kampala as opposition supporters chained themselves on electric poles indicating freedom is suppressed. Endit