Court Issues Another Order Blocking L.C Elections

High Court in Kampala has issued a third interim order staying Local Council (LC) elections countrywide which were slated to take place on Tuesday next week.

Court stopped the elections on grounds of non-participation of students including those who are currently sitting their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Examinations (UACE) along with their teachers.

Head of Civil Division of High Court, Justice Stephen Musota halted the electoral process until the main case filed by former UNATU General Secretary James Tweheyo is decided on. Tweheyo challenged conducting of the elections when most students, teachers and lecturers are at school depriving them of their constitutional right to vote.

This interim order is an extension of earlier orders issued on Monday this week by both the Kampala and Jinja High Court registrars.

The hearing of the main case could not proceed since the Attorney General needed to make further consultations before filing his response in court.

At the same time, the Kampala interim order staying the elections had lapsed and it would give a green light to the Electoral commission to organise the November 21 elections thus prompting Justice Musota to issue another order.

Parties in this matter who include the Electoral Commission and the Attorney General are to settle the matter with Tweheyo outside court.

The applicant welecomed the idea and remarked that he is ready to negotiate with the respondents to ensure that they fix the matter on dates to favour all Ugandans to participate in the 30 minutes elections.

The matter has been pushed to November 29, 2017 for hearing.