Mbabaali Jude and Co. Advocates has filed Constitutional Application No. 01 of 2014 arising out of Constitutional Petition No. 03 of 2014 with a prayer that injunction doth issue restraining the Electoral Commission from organizing and holding a bye-election to fill the purported vacant parliamentary seat of Bubulo West Constituency until the final disposal of Constitutional Petition No. 03 of 2014.

The hearing was on Thursday at 2.30pm in the Constitutional   Court
at Twed plaza. Our clients’ contention in the said Constitutional petition is that the said seat of the Member of Parliament for Bubulo West has never fallen vacant as the Parliament of Uganda is not competent as envisaged under Article 86 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 to declare a seat of a member of parliament vacant as it was done in Hon. Tony Kipoi Nsubuga’s instant case.

Mbabaali’s argument is fortified by the recent dissenting Judgment of Hon. Justice Remmy Kasule in the ‘Rebel’ MPs’ case, Constitutional Petition No. 21 of 2013; NRM v Attorney General & 4 others delivered on the 21st day of February 2014 wherein at pages 26, 27, 28 and 29, he held that parliament has no powers to declare a parliamentary seat vacant as Article 86(1) of the Constitution vested the same in the High Court.

Our clients in the said petition are aggrieved that despite all the above being within Eng. Kigundu’s knowledge he has gone ahead to declare the 10th day of April 2014 as the polling date to fill the purported vacant seat. And as a result of his said declaration many political parties have started organizing primaries within their ranks to get suitable candidates to vie for a seat that has never fallen vacant in law. Nomination of candidates is set for Monday next week.

Ends