In his petition drafted in form of talking points before the Justices, Ssebaduka wondered how a sensible person would subject presidential aspirants to going to look for signatures of their supporters from two thirds of the country and then afterwards subjected them to virtual elections and campaigns.
A panel of
seven Supreme Court justices has ordered a man who used abusive language in his
petition to return to them next week and show cause why he shouldn't be found
in contempt of court.
Ivan
Ssebadduka in September filed what he called a Presidential Election Petition against
the Health Ministry, Electoral Commission Chairperson Simon Byabakama and
President Yoweri Museveni. In the petition, he accused the said respondents of a
wide range of conducts and wrongs key of them that they are reportedly ignorant, unintelligible about corona virus and the basics of the pandemic.
In his petition drafted in form of talking points before the Justices, Ssebaduka wondered how a sensible person would subject presidential aspirants to going to look for signatures of their supporters from two thirds of the country and then afterwards subjected them to virtual elections and campaigns.
The Electoral Commission
had ordered that due to the outbreak of COVID-19, they were to follow the
measures put in place to avoid the spread of COVID-19 during the election
process and in line with that, they were only going to hold scientific campaigns and elections.
The EC also asked presidential aspirants to look for signatures of their supporters
from two thirds of the total number of districts before they are nominated in a
two days' session which ended on Tuesday.
But Ssebaduka
argued that it doesn't make sense for them to do so noting that if indeed
COVID-19 exists, the presidential aspirants were to contract it during the
course of looking for signatures.
Ssebadduka who said he was a presidential aspirant
asked court to scrap the scientific campaigns and also waive the condition of
looking for signatures before nominations.
But all the
respondents jointly opposed the applications.
The Ministry
of Health through the State Attorney Richard Adrole argued that it had been
wrongly sued as all legal actions made against Government should be filed against the
Attorney General.
Then the Electoral Commission Chairperson Justice Simon
Byabakama who was represented by the Commission's lawyers led by Eric Sabiiti
and Hamidu Lugoloobi argued that
Ssebadduka had abused the court process as he should have filed his petition
before the High Court and that it was wrong for him to sue Byabakama.
The two
Senior Legal Officers argued that the Electoral Commission’s Act provides that an
official of the Commission cannot be sued in their individual capacity unless
they have acted in bad faith which wasn’t the case here. They also noted that
one cannot file a presidential elections petition before elections are conducted.
President
Museveni on
his part through his lawyers led by Edwin Karugire noted that as
a sitting president he enjoys the immunity and therefore he cannot be sued.
However, in
their ruling today, the seven Supreme Court Justices led by Chief Justice Alfonse
Owiny-Dollo have unanimously concurred with the
submissions raised by all the respondents and dismissed the petition with
costs.
Other
Justices on the panel are; Stellah Arach Amoko, Percy Night Tuhaise, Faith
Mwondha, Paul Mugamba, Ezekiel Muhanguzi and Mike Chibita.
They noted
that Ssebadduka abused the court process and besides this, he used abusive
language to the extent that he abused everyone involved in his petition
including Justices of the court and the only person he didn't abuse was
himself.
The Justices
noted that apart from demeaning the sanctity of the Justices, his petition
lacked any merit and there is no way any reasonable tribunal would ever
entertain a petition framed out of abusive language like his.
They said in
the interest of justice and fairness, Ssebadduka should be punished for his
abusive language.
As such,
they directed that he appears before them on November 11 2020 and explain why
he shouldn't be found in contempt of court.
Contempt of
Court is the only offense that is not laid out in the Penal Code Act as it may
have both civil and criminal elements. However, for such conducts that arise
from between proceedings, section 107 of the Penal Code Act states that a
person who may found in contempt of court commits a misdemeanor.
Section 22
of the Penal Code Act also provides that a general punishment of such misdemeanors
may not exceed two years imprisonment. The Judge may also use their discretion to punish the
person to any sentence.
Speaking to
URN after the decision, Ssebadduka dressed in a black suit and sunglasses said
that he did not expect his petition to succeed when being heard by such justices, and he repeated his abusive words against the different oarties and institutions involved.
