After Sensing Defeat, Bobi Wine Withdraws Poll Petition

National Unity Platform (NUP) party leader Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine has withdrawn the petition he filed before the Supreme Court challenging President Museveni’s re-election on January 14.

The filing of the petition has been a matter of controversy within Mr Kyagulanyi’s camp, and the Opposition leader hinted last week that he would withdraw it if Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo and two other Justices of the Supreme Court did not recuse themselves from hearing the matter.

This demand by Mr Kyagulanyi, which he made outside the courtroom – at a press conference at his party’s offices in Kamwokya, Kampala – led to a rebuke of the Opposition activist by the Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo when the Supreme Court sat over the petition on Friday.

One of the reasons they give for this – and Mr Kyagulanyi expounded on it at a press conference on Tuesday – is that a number of the judges to determine the case have associations with President Museveni and members of the ruling party (both past and present), which makes them unable to be impartial in the case.

The concerned Supreme Court justices have rejected this view.