Could EC’s Kiggundu be charged with treason?

By Prof George W. Kanyeihamba
Posted 


Sunday, December 13 

2015 at 

02:00

Article 2 of the Constitution as amended states as follows:-
1. This Constitution is the supreme law of Uganda and shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout Uganda.
2. If any other law or custom is inconsistent with any provision of this Constitution, the Constitution shall prevail and that other law or custom shall, to the extent of inconsistency, be void.
Article 3
1. It is prohibited for any person or group of persons to take or retain control of the government of Uganda except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

2. Any person, who singly or in consort with others by violent or any other unlawful means, suspends, abrogates or amends this Constitution or any part of it commits treason.

If the above Constitution provisions are applied to what the Electoral Commission (EC) chairman, Dr Badru Kiggundu, and some of his fellow commissioners and officials are doing and deciding, it is arguable that they could be charged with treason.

Both the Constitution and electoral laws of Uganda are very clear on who can and who cannot vote in the general election, including presidential ones. They also make it clear as to who is qualified to stand or be nominated for office.
In that regard, the voter or the candidate must be a Uganda citizen and registered voter. One cannot be a registered voter unless one is a Ugandan citizen.

Consequently, once you show that you have a valid registered voter’s card, that is sufficient evidence and ample justification for the authorities, returning officers, the Electoral Commission and presiding officers or whatever description, rank or status to allow you unhindered access to cast your vote at any polling station and in any public election.

Always a citizen
Thus, once a citizen, always a citizen and once a registered voter, always a registered voter. The only way anyone who is a citizen and a registered voter can be prevented from voting is if one is disqualified by a competent court, having committed an offence that disqualifies one from voting.

There is no law in Uganda or elsewhere that compels or requires a Uganda registered voter to produce an identity card, even if it is the national ID, in order to vote in a public election.

It is, therefore, inexplicable that the police have not questioned the people who are continuing, through ignorance or deliberately, to violate the Constitution and laws of Uganda.

For instance, it is an infringement for Dr Kiggundu to state that, “The 2011 registered was retired and so at that stage anybody who was holding onto that register as a basis for participating in future elections is no longer holding,” as reported in Daily Monitor of December 9.

Ugandans are wondering whether the Electoral Commission has lost its marbles and is meandering in the wilderness of political confusion and chaos. Most Ugandans were registered long time ago.

They have continued voting since independence, and it is only since Kiggundu became chairman of the Electoral Commission that Ugandans have for the first time heard that the national voters’ register has been pensioned off and replaced.

This is not the first time that the Electoral Commission has been accused of being partisan, biased, intimidated or incompetent. In most petitions and challenges involving elections, the Electoral Commission has been found to be guilty of one or more of the offences levelled against it.

In the recent disqualification of DP president general Norbert Mao, the Electoral Commission’s acts and behaviour were disgraceful. In the case of its attempted refusal to nominate Erias Lukwago for the mayor ship of Kampala on the basis that Kiggundu was waiting for instructions from a minister, was comical.

Sometime ago, it was reported that Kiggundu’s term of office had ended. However, recently he was reported to have said he will continue to serve as long as he is needed. But a section of Ugandans believe that his continued presence is an embarrassment.

Prof Kanyeihamba is a retired Supreme Court judge. gwkany@yahoo.com