Judiciary chief spokesperson James Ereemye has confirmed that the judiciary has no money to kick-off the hearing of the election petitions resulting from the 2026 general elections.
According to the law, every election petition must be filed within thirty days after the day on which the result of the election was published by the Electoral Commission in the gazette.
Ereemye said that dissatisfied candidates followed the requirement of waiting for the gazettement of the winners and after petitioned Court seeking for legal redress including overturning the results, declaring fresh elections and declaring them winners so that they directly move to parliament.
The law further states that the High Court must proceed to hear and determine the petition expeditiously and may, for that purpose suspend any other matter pending before it.
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Ereemye said that the Principal Judge Jane Frances Abodo who heads all judges of the High Court followed that requirement when deploying and allocating judges at different High Court circuits, like Masaka, Soroti, Moroto, Luwero, Mbarara, Iganga, Kumi, Pader, Tororo, Fort Portal, Hoima, Mukono and Lira to preside over election petitions.
He stated that the judiciary is scared because the law requires that the High Court must determine an election petition before it within six months after the petition was lodged in that Court.
Petitions were filed two months back and there is a lot of scare that the judiciary will be caught outside the law if money is not urgently released by the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development.
Ereemye said that Abodo has placed her team on standby to be ready to execute their constitutional mandate.
However, they don’t have logistics to facilitate this work.
He explained that judges were deployed according to the number of petitions filed in each High Court circuit with Masaka High Court registering the highest number of complaints compared to other regions.
Sources said that the judge who is going to camp at a given circuit has to move with his entire office which includes his assistants, his security, his secretaries and car and they are all supposed to get allowances of working out of their deployed stations.
Among the notable election petitions filed include; from Mawokota North where Hillary Innocent Kiyaga is challenging the victory of Amelia Kyambadde, in Mbarara North; In Mbarara City where Robert Mwesigwa Rukaari is challenging businessman Christopher Bakashaba’s victory; in Tororo where Sarah Opendi Achieng is challenging Angella Akoth’s victory; in Kayunga district where Birungi Kobusingye is challenging Harriet Nakwedde; Rose Nalubowa is also challenging the victory of Justine Nameere as Masaka City Woman Member of Parliament among others.
