Kyagulanyi’s bid to file new evidence in election petition was a failure from the start

The ruling National Resistance Movement(NRM) has laughed at National Unity Platform’s presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi’s failed bid to file new evidence in the election petition against President Museveni’s victory.

Kyagulanyi suffered a setback in his effort to challenge Museveni’s victory in the just-concluded election when the Supreme Court dismissed his application to amend the petition to include new grounds.

The panel of nine justices of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny- Dollo said the application was filed out of the time stipulated.

Addressing the weekly press conference at the party headquarters in Nakasero, the Director in charge of legal affairs within NRM, Oscar Kihiika said the respondents’ lawyers knew from the start the application would not succeed.

“There are certain applications you see being made and know cannot pass certain criteria. There is a standard criterion to be met but at the first time we looked at the application and knew it would not succeed,”Kihiika said on Sunday afternoon.

“With court, you can’t tell what will happen but we were optimistic over it(application). We were confident of taking the day.”

Court dismisses Kyagulanyi’s application to file new evidence against Museveni

The NRM legal director told journalists that unlike many, they prepared for the petition way back in November, even before the January,14, 2021 polls since they anticipated that some of the participants would challenge the outcome.

“As a legal team, we have been working on this. We were anticipating a petition, even if it was not going to come. We assembled a team of experienced lawyers who have handled a number of election petitions. When the petition was finally filed, we had covered reasonably a lot of ground,”Kihiika said.

Kyagulanyi wants to take court on a fishing expedition with new evidence- Museveni lawyers

He however noted that despite assembling a team of experienced lawyers, it is not automatic that they will win the petition since the onus to decide which way the case goes lies on the hands of the justices of the Supreme Court.

“You can never be confident in court because the decision lies in the hands of people (judges) who sit to deliberate on the matter. Each of them has their own opinion.”