By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA (Reuters) – Opposition leader Bobi Wine said on Monday he was leaving a legal challenge to the outcome of Uganda’s presidential election, which handed over the victory to current Yoweri Museveni, and the Supreme Court judges hearing the case said: is biased.
Museveni, a former guerrilla leader who has led the country in East Africa since 1986, was declared the winner of the January 14 election with 59% of the vote, while Wine received 35%.
Wine, 39, a pop star and lawmaker by the real name Robert Kyagulanyi, rejected the result, saying he believed the victory had been stolen from him. He asked the court to undo the results on several grounds, including the widespread use of force.
“We have decided to withdraw from their court,” Wine told a news conference in the capital, Kampala. “The courts are not independent, it is clear that these people (judges) work for Mr Museveni.”
As evidence, he rejected the court’s decision to submit an application for additional evidence, rejecting the prior votes, the false votes, impossibly high turnout and other irregularities. .
Wine also said some of the judges of the court had met Museveni several times since he filed the petition and that some meetings were secret. “We are convinced that the Supreme Court has a predetermined mind,” he said.
Solomon Muyita, a spokesman for the judiciary, told Reuters judicial authorities would only respond to Wine’s accusations and the decision to withdraw the case once he has formally closed the case through his lawyers.
“At the moment, that’s what he did, that he only made a political statement. As far as the records of the Supreme Court are concerned, the case is still there,” he said.
Wine gave rise to great prominence among young Ugandans.
However, dozens killed and hundreds killed by security forces against his supporters over the past few months. Wine and other leaders of his National Unity Platform party also accused security forces of crossing the country and kidnapping and torturing its supporters.
Police said they are investigating all reports of disappearances.
Last week, soldiers beat journalists and seriously injured them when they reported on Wine delivering a petition to the UN human rights office in Uganda investigating alleged human rights violations.
On Thursday, the Ugandan army sentenced seven soldiers to 90 days in prison after they were found guilty of assaulting the journalists who covered the event.
(Edited by Elias Biryabarema; Written by Omar Mohammed; Edited by William Maclean and Mark Heinrich)