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Ugandan presidential challenger Bobi Wine presented a petition on Monday challenging the election of longtime President Yoweri Museveni.
Television footage showed armed police and soldiers patrolling the streets around the Supreme Court in the capital Kampala. Judges nominally have 45 days to deliberate.
What are the lawyers saying?
Anthony Wameli, a lawyer for Wine’s legal team, said his opposition, the National United Platform (NUP), had amassed “glaring evidence” to prove that the election result was invalid.
“We want the poll canceled and repeated,” said George Musisi, also a lawyer for the NUP.
“There was outright ballot stuffing, there was intimidation of NUP agents and supporters, some were arrested the day before [last month’s] election, the ballots were pre-checked, ”Musisi said.
“The only problem are the judges,” added Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, a lawyer and Ugandan rights analyst, saying the justice system was more determined to preserve “stability”.
“They know that if they annul an election, it can cause a coup or instability. This is what they fear, ”Rwakafuuzi said.
What was the outcome of the elections?
Museveni won the Jan. 14 election with 58 percent of the vote while popstar-turned-politician Wine had 35 percent, according to final results announced last week by the electoral commission.
President Museveni, a longtime ally of the United States whose ostensibly leftist rebels seized power in 1985, dismissed allegations of electoral fraud and accused Wine of being a foreign agent.
Since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1962, Uganda has never witnessed a peaceful transfer of power.
Police surrounded Wine’s home the day after the election to prevent him from leading protests. They withdrew last week following a court ruling.
Electoral doubts
Doubts about the Ugandan elections remain, with US Ambassador Natalie E. Brown citing last week “a deep and continuing concern over the extrajudicial detention of a member of an opposition political party”.
During the poll, many international observers, such as the EU election observers, were excluded. The internet in Uganda was shut down for days before the vote, as many young Ugandans abroad also tried to keep up with developments.
Museveni, sworn in as president in 1986, pledged to step down four years later, but never did.
In a multiparty election in 1996, he reappeared as president and continued to stifle opposition.
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